Partially exposed earth wire in plug

[Decay1980]

Morning,
I'm doing a project of insulating our new garden office with 25mm insulation board and 3.6mm plywood. All is going well so.
We have an electrician doing the electrics and wiring a fuse board and some plugs. When i was putting on one of the plywood boards I undid one of the fascias on the plug so I could get the boards in behind it, I noticed that the earth wire was partially exposed, shown in the picture hopefully attached.
I asked the electrician about it and he said it was normal and the cable is bare in the cabling so it can carry fault current back to the board in case of a fault.
Obviously I am not an electrician but that sounds a bit weird.
Can anyone verify?

Thank you,
David Kernaghan

 

[pete01]

The sleeving should of been a bit longer but don't lose any sleep over it.

 

[stem]

Twin and earth cable comes with a bare earth wire. When installed, the bare earth wire is covered with an insulating sleeve where it extends from the grey sheath as per your picture. Personally, the earth sleeving has been cut a bit short for my liking, but it's not unusual.

 

[pete01]

It's also good practice to earth the back box which hasn't been done.

 

[EFLImpudence]

When installed, the bare earth wire is covered with an insulating sleeve where it extends from the grey sheath as per your picture.

...but no one knows why.

 

[EFLImpudence]

I noticed that the earth wire was partially exposed,

You can of course slide the insulation up to the grey sheath and shorten the end if you wish but it is not necessary.

 

[JohnD]

If you do occasional electrical jobs, you can buy small packets of heat-shrink sleeving, in mixed colours and sizes. You are unlikely to use much.

G&Y you can buy in hanks, IME it is often missing or too short.

 

[chivers67]

Heat shrink is a great option to use on Earth wire as once shrunk down it doesn't slide about like Sleeving does.

 

[Decay1980]

Thank you to everyone for posting, you've put my mind as ease.
Decay

 

[Jackrae]

"...the cable is bare in the cabling so it can carry fault current back to the board in case of a fault."
I trust those aren't the actual words your electrical installer used.

 

[plugwash]

There is a shcool of thought that it is better for the earth wire to be bare because in the event of cable damage it's better to have a short to earth and trip a protective device, than for the damaged cable to remain damaged with live wires exposed.

 

[RandomGrinch]

There is a shcool of thought that it is better for the earth wire to be bare because in the event of cable damage it's better to have a short to earth and trip a protective device, than for the damaged cable to remain damaged with live wires exposed.

A recent discussion on the why, here:

Twin + Earth - no sleeve on earth

Hi DIYers! I’ve recently been doing some DIY electrical work and have, of course used earth sleeve on my Twin + Earth cables. But here’s something I’ve always wondered - why do they not just supply the cable with earth already sleeved? Three core flex has the earth wire sleeved, so why not...

www.diynot.com

...personally, I like the cheese wire idea!

 

[chivers67]

Yeah but no but yeah

 

[JohnD]

"...the cable is bare in the cabling so it can carry fault current back to the board in case of a fault."
I trust those aren't the actual words your electrical installer used.

I think he was just making up some flannel to cover up his inaccurate cutting

Hoping to bamboozle the paying customer