A Brief Description of The Law Relating to Car Booster Seats

On the 18th September 2006 the government introduced a new car booster seat law that stated that whether in the front seat or the back seat of a vehicle all children over 3 years old and up to 135cm in height or 12 years of age must wear the correct child seat restraint. The correct type of restraint can be selected using the system for child car seats based on the Groups 0 to 3 which are essentially based on the child’s weight. According to the booster seat law the person responsible for ensuring any passengers use the correct restraints is the driver and this applies for passengers up to 14 years of age with the exception of taxis that have fixed partitions. A £30 fixed penalty can be issued and in the case of it going to court up to a 500 pound fine can be imposed. Under the car booster seat law there are three exceptions to the rules above. These are:

• Short and occasional journeys made for reasons of "unexpected necessity" (so not on regular school runs, but you don't need to worry if you are picking up a friend's child because he or she has been unexpectedly detained at work)
• Two other children are already using restraints in the back seat, leaving no room for a third. (In this case it would still probably be safer to have the child travel in the front seat of the car with the appropriate restraint/booster seat.)
• Taxis as mentioned above.