MOBILE phone users are to be given hands-free kits for their cars at no charge - as long as they drive Fords. In a move to promote road safety, Ford is making thousands of kits available with the phones given away with its vehicles until the end of this month.

Worth £135 each, the kits are being supplied and fitted free with new cars bought by both fleet and retail customers - and they are also on offer to operators and owners of existing Fords, irrespective of age.

Ford's initiative was launched on Monday amid increasing concern over the safety of car drivers using mobile phones on the move and calls from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents for a complete ban on mobile phones while driving. The move comes just two weeks after Britain's largest fleet management company, PHH Vehicle Management Services, called on car manufacturers to fit built-in hands-free kits for mobile phones as standard in all new cars.