Free Traffic Legal Advice

Bit of a weird one, hoping for advice.

My wife works at a care home and often drives vehicles belonging to the adults she cares for (insured through work). One of those vehicles (registered to a parent of a resident) received a NIP/ S.172.

That notice was sent to the parent, but instead of completing it, the parent insists the care home should do it. The care home, in turn, told my wife to complete and sign it, naming herself as the driver.

But:

• The notice is not addressed to her.
• The car is not registered to the care home — it's a private vehicle.
• The parent is misreading the form, thinking the “secretary of the company” clause applies, but it doesn’t — this isn’t a company vehicle.

I've advised my wife not to complete it since it's not addressed to her. The proper route is:

• The parent should complete it and name her.
• Then she'd get her own NIP/S.172 to respond to.

Her employer is repeatedly pressuring her to sign the parents' NIP.

Questions:

• She's right to refuse, yeah? Completing someone else’s S.172 would be a legal risk.
• Can her employer discipline her for refusing? (She has over 2 years’ service.)

I get that delays might cost her the chance for a SAC, but it doesn’t feel safe or legal to fill out something addressed to someone else.

Cheers.

This is a motoring law forum, not an employment law forum!

Obvious question is whether she was the culprit, or whether she is being pressured to carry the can for someone else. Or somewhere inbetween.
You appear to have avoided troubling us with such mudane details, preferring to tell us that she often drives the vehicle and is insured to do so, which is about as relevant as how many sugars she has in her coffee.

I've advised my wife not to complete it since it's not addressed to her. The proper route is:

• The parent should complete it and name her.
• Then she'd get her own NIP/S.172 to respond to.

That would be "proper". You may note that "proper" has the same meaning that it does in the Road Traffic Act 1988 - which is to say none whatsoever.

Questions:

• She's right to refuse, yeah? Completing someone else’s S.172 would be a legal risk.
• Can her employer discipline her for refusing? (She has over 2 years’ service.)

.

Your first question appears at the very least to be a loaded one. You do agree with me, don't you? Followed by a statement. You might note that I do not refer to it as a "statement of fact" as, on the face of it, it is untrue except to the extent that it is so vague as to be meaningless and therefore transcends veracity.

What do you mean by "would be a legal risk"? And in what way would completing someone else's form constitute such a risk?

Your second explicit question is an employment law question.