A bizarre but disturbing Press Release came our way recently, aimed at company directors and managers who allow their employees to use their own cars on company business.

It seems that, in the litigious society we live in today, that leaves companies and their directors and senior managers open to charges of corporate manslaughter if their employee is involved in a fatal accident when driving his own car, if that car is proved to be defective. And the release tells us that a survey of privately-owned cars being used on company business found an incredible two-thirds were "not safe to be on the road" and one third were "not properly insured".

A new law coming into force in April is responsible, we are told: "The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act introduces a new offence, across the UK, for prosecuting companies and other organisations where there has been a gross failing, throughout the organisation, in the management of health and safety with fatal consequences."

The answer, it seems, is for companies to insist on checking insurance, MoT and licensing details of employees' cars before allowing them to be used on company business.

Malcolm McKay, Motorbase News Editor