Section 701 does not mention cupboards.

I immediately thought of an airing cupboard and immersion heater,  but they are permitted even in zone 1 - 701.55(x) - although difficult to see how it could be achieved.

I think that what is described does not fall into the prohibition in 701.512.3 because it is not a switch or socket.

Therefore it is compliant. That notwithstanding, it seems to be perfectly safe, so no comment required.

Doors define the limit of a 701 location in the same was as walls, floors, ceilings, fixed partitions and so on - so as long as the cupboard has a door, it's likely to be compliant. No need for it to be locked or accessible only using a tool.

Traditionally that was always the case as we had plate switches for immersion heaters in the airing cupboard next to the bath, even when switches (other than pull ones) were banned from bathrooms, and sockets on the landing just outside of the bathroom door.

   - Andy.

Generally “the zones”  stop at fixed partitions, walls and so on that do not move, and at the entrance door to the bathroom - as the assumption is presumably that it would be immodest to shower with the door open, and all these objects will intercept water splashes .

Now as an aside   I'm not sure that the writers of the regs are particularly worldly wise or well traveled sometimes in the assumptions made about behaviour like that, but there we are.

Now you do not say where this cupboard door is, in relation to the bath or shower head etc, but you could ask ‘if it was left open, would anything electrical get wet ?’

As it happens it sounds like nothing inside matters if it gets wet with some odd drops anyway, so even if the door was taken off the cupboard completely you would be OK.

However, for future notes or for other readers, if there was an accessible 13A socket in the cupboard, then you may need to consider it a regs non-compliance. How seriously to take that non-compliance  would depend on the likelihood of getting it wet, or of a wet handed user fresh out of the tub reaching in to do something with it… the bogey case everyone raises is the use of a hair dryer that then gets dropped in the bath while plugged in and someone is in the bath

 Unless it is a big bathroom and a 3m offset can be maintained. Not sure there are many hair dryer leads that long, or indeed that anyone in their right mind does that, but again, it is a (safe?) assumption.

The other consideration is condensation, and that all depends on temperatures of outside walls being colder  etc and how good the ventilation is, and what to do is not really well defined in the regs but still needs thinking about properly.

Mike.

I moved into this house a few years ago, and one of the bathrooms has a cupboard at the end of the bath where the washer and dryer go. Ventilation is good and they cannot be operated from the bath, so I'm not concerned ?

Thanks all! As I expected! 

If we have a bath with a shower head at the tap end and the cupboard has the door open (or is easy openable) and a standard person could be still in the bath and easy reach round into such cupboard and touch switch/socket/controls etc then should we be concerned? Well who would imagine someone actually doing that? Me. Who would imagine some years back a similar such person reaching up to a batten lampholder without a H O skirt and changing the lamp whilst live? Me. 

Never underestimate the determined ingenuity of complete and utter idiots!

 Actually Charly Darwin had a way to sort `em out

AJJewsbury:

No need for it to be locked or accessible only using a tool.

There are shed loads of cables under daughter's bath 'cos the CU is below. The side of the bath is screwed into place so they are not in zone 1; but what if she had one of those wee cupboards where the spare loo roll and Flash may be stored?

ebee: 
If we have a bath with a shower head at the tap end …

Or even at the opposite end; but I do take your point.

mapj1: 
 

Generally “the zones”  stop at fixed partitions, walls and so on that do not move, and at the entrance door to the bathroom - as the assumption is presumably that it would be immodest to shower with the door open, and all these objects will intercept water splashes .

Now as an aside   I'm not sure that the writers of the regs are particularly worldly wise or well traveled sometimes in the assumptions made about behaviour like that, but there we are.

"Presuming an assumption" is asking for disaster, according to the laws of Engineering! Ignoring the adage ‘Assumption is the mother of all cuffups’ is sure to invoke Murphy's Law.

The real reason the location containing the bath or shower stops at a fixed partition or door is quite simply, it's considered to be an indicator of the extent or boundary of the location. The issue being how do you define such a location? You run the risk of unintentionally including a whole structure. It's not an easy debate, and one that I'm sure will cycle round for further debate when any work is done on Section 701 (or IEC 60364-7-701 internationally).

Yes, it does lead to some socket-outlets, switches, etc., outside of the location potentially being within the proscribed distances [if the door is open] but on the other hand, practicability tells us that the bathroom light switch not being outside the bathroom might be more of an issue than the far-fetched risk of someone trying to operate it from within the bath or shower.

How many official electrical  reports of fatalities do we have in the U.K. from wiring accessories being splashed in bathrooms or shower rooms? Abroad people have been killed when dropping something into an occupied bath such as a phone charger. But here in the U.K?

Z.