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GEORGE ROBERTSON: WHAT??!!!!!
The positioning of concealed cables is covered within BS 7671, although this is one of the best kept secrets that consumers are not aware of.
As the cable is well within 50 mm from the surface, the prescribed zones allow for cables to be installed horizontally or vertically to an electrical point, accessory or switchgear. Because the cable is directly below the consumer unit it would meet the requirements of BS 7671 and in particular Regulation 522.6.202.
It looks like there was plaster removed to find the damage to the cable and I would assume that there was also a fault on the cable. Although the wall plug is plastic, I doubt if it would act as an insulator with the screw in place.
Hopefully, there was an RCD installed to provide additional protection for the circuit. If not, the installation may have been designed to an earlier edition of BS 7671 which did not require such protection.
The first classification code would be a Further Investigation (FI) to determine if this was the only area where a screw had penetrated this cable and to widen the inspection and testing to find any other cables with similar G damage.
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