Are all UK sinks equipped with U-bends?
They should be. The trap is usually attached directly to the base of the basin drain, so on a pedestal sink it will be hidden behind the top of the pedestal.
If it's a modern PVC waste system, you'll probably find something like this:
Just unscrew the plastic nuts at each end of the U-bend and it will come away so you can rescue anything from inside. Older systems will have metal pipes, sometimes with a drain plug at the bottom of the trap itself.
You might find a bottle trap used instead. At first glance there appears to be no U-bend, but in fact the equivalent trap is formed from a partition inside the unit:
The inside of the domed cap on the bottom actually forms the bottom of the U-bend, and is where small objects will end up (if, as you hope, the force of the water wasn't enough to sweep them right away). If you have this type of trap, just put a small bowl underneath to catch the water and unscrew the cap from the bottom.
