Child car seats

UK law is clear: children must use a child car seat until they are 12 years old or 135cm tall, whichever comes first. After that, they must use a seat belt.

GOV.UK - Child car seats: the law

Approved car seats only

Only EU-approved car seats are legal in the UK. Look for:

• i-Size (R129): Label shows a capital ‘E’ in a circle and ‘R129’
• Weight-based (R44): Label shows ‘ECE R44’

Two legal categories of car seats

Height-based (i-Size) seats

• Must be rear-facing until the child is over 15 months old
• Designed to work with ISOFIX anchor points
• Safer in side-impact collisions
• Must match your child’s height

Weight-based seats

Grouped by weight and suitable seat types:

• Group 0/0+ – Newborn to 13kg (0 to 15 months)
• Group 0+/1 – Newborn to 18kg (0 to around 4 years)
• Group 0+/1/2 – Newborn to 25kg (0 to around 7 years)
• Group 0+/1/2/3 – Newborn to 36kg (0 to around 12 years)
• Group 1 – 9kg to 18kg (9 months to 4 years)
• Group 1/2/3 – 9kg to 36kg (9 months to 12 years)
• Group 2/3 – 15kg to 36kg (4 years to 12 years)
• Group 3 – 22kg to 36kg (from 5 or 6 years and more than 125cm tall)