Booster Seats the Law and Safety
Existing booster seats and cushions are not affected by new rules which came into force February 9 2017.
We have been contacted by many consumers regarding confusion over the amendments to the booster seat law. Here is the truth from the Government, a reliable and impartial source. Hopefully this information will be helpful to you.
The Department for Transport has been notified by the UN that the new rules for manufacturers of backless booster seats apply from 9 Feb 2017.
The new rules mean that manufacturers aren’t allowed to introduce new models of backless booster seats for children shorter than 125cm or weighing less than 22kg.
Existing seats not affected by new rules
The change doesn’t affect existing models of seats or cushions and doesn’t mean that they are unsafe or illegal - though parents are still being encouraged to make sure they know the rules for using child car seats.
There is no substantiating evidence to prove the claims that high backed booster seats provide a safer option than backless boosters in the real world.
There is no field evidence, i.e. real life evidence, to substantiate a claim that high backed boosters are safer than backless boosters, the marketing crash tests have all been orchestrated in a laboratory scenario.
In actual fact, the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Center of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania released a report called The Effectiveness of Belt Positioning Booster Seats :An UpdatedAssessment, of over 7,000 children aged between 4-8yrs in both high backed and backless booster seats in real life crashes and the conclusion states :”Importantly, these results suggest that the effectiveness of booster seats does not vary by the type of booster seat:backless or high-back.” ”Among children who were restrained in BPB (belt positioning booster) seats, there was no evidence of a difference in the performance of backless versus high-back boosters.”
Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/using-a-child-car-seat-or-booster-seat