MANUFACTURERS could face significant cuts in fleet sales volumes as the threat of imprisonment for corporate manslaughter causes a shift towards Euro New Car Assessment crash test results as key criteria for company car choice.

Last week Dulux Decorator Centres announced it was to base its car choice on ENCAP ratings of three stars or more out of five, becoming the first UK fleet to potentially rule out cars which did not make the ENCAP grade. The move followed an initiative by Dulux's leasing supplier, Associates Fleet Services, which wrote to all clients on its 12,000-vehicle database earlier in the year to suggest they made more use of ENCAP crash test ratings.

But if the uptake of ENCAP ratings becomes more widespread in fleets, as AFS' managing director Colin Tourick believes it will, volume-selling cars like the Peugeot 406, BMW 3-series, Audi A4, Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio, Peugeot 206 and Nissan Almera, could be banned - either because they scored below three stars in the tests or because the latest versions of them, or new launches, have yet to be tested.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders points out that all new cars on sale in Britain meet European safety standards legislation, whether they had been ENCAP crash-tested or not.

AFS uses the ratings as part of its own fleet car selection and Tourick said the new safety legislation had raised the profile of ENCAP stars and cultivated a safety-first culture among fleets.

Tourick said: 'As a managing director I would not want to expose myself to the risk of prosecution by allowing employees to drive cars I considered to be unsafe. Our view that the car is a bona fide workplace - a mobile office - has never been more accurate and, as such, should be as safe as possible.'

The latest round of ENCAP tests for superminis, due to be published in September, will include a new test in which the car is propelled sideways at 18mph into a rigid pole.