The UK is (for now) part of the EU. If we believe the original article that it's illegal in the EU, then it's illegal in the UK (this is likely to be the case even after Brexit, judging by what is being said about the legal process). That doesn't always mean that action is taken, unfortunately. I also don't immediately find any EU laws about it (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?referen... suggests that there wasn't any in 2011 and the new road-worthiness harmonisation only made it easier to detect)