I got a call from my dealer today - I now have an actual 6 digit commission number!
He had put in 7 orders, and only the first 2 are confirmed. Good job I was first with the deposit and number one on his list!
The commission number doesn't show a build date in the VW system yet, but should do fairly soon.
On Friday VW decided they'd bump other cars for the R's and re-allocate commission numbers - but then an hour later they started giving R's new commission numbers instead and taking the previous ones they issued back.
VW still seem to think there will be some UK R's on the road in the first quarter.