Minibus Legal Question

Thanks to Peter King, the Community Transport Implementation Officer at Hampshire County Council for the answer to this question. 

The answer is "No, but...."  The regulations do not apply to minibuses - they only to apply to cars, people carriers of up to 8 passenger seats (eg. Ford Galaxy) and vans.  The "but" is that parents will expect the same level of safety for their children when travelling by minibus as when travelling by car.  And schools have a duty of care to their children.  So there is a strong argument to use booster seats for younger children. This will raise them up so that the diagonal belt is across their shoulder and does not cut into their neck (which would cause serious injuries or death in a severe accident). 

To summarise:  the new regulations do not apply to minibuses so you are not legally obliged to use booster seats.  But to meet your duty of care I would advise that you should use boosters for young children.

One final point:  many minibuses have 'all age' or 'generation' seat belts, where the upper mounting for the diagonal belt is adjustable for height. Always make sure that this is correctly adjusted for the height of the child i.e. lower for shorter children.

Peter King
Community Transport Implementation Officer
Hampshire County Council.