I second that. Coming from Continental Europe, visiting Britain - it is more akin to visiting US or Australia than Spain or Poland. Things are done differently, and engineering practices are compatible with continental Europe only when they absolutely have to be. Personal experience about engineering practices - In continental Europe - workmanship/quality comes first - cost/time to manufacture comes second. It is usually the opposite in Britain.

Dealing with verbal orders is easy - this is how gangs operate, and they put them behind bars after one guy wise enough decides (with police help) to record such an order on tape.... Issue with making every order coming from CEO is - that it will never happen... too many lobby groups would oppose it, and they have a strong say on what goes on the hill. And every corporation would back them.