Children under 12-years-old must travel in the back - unless they're underthree and are in a properly-fitted safety seat. Susan Jones gets up-front about up-front
What age should children be allowed to travel in the front seat of your car? It may seem surprising but children under the age of 12 are not allowed to travel in the front.
Since 1993 it has been compulsory for all children under three years to travel in a properly fitted child restraint system - the exception is that infants in a proper seat can travel in the front of the car.
Connor Faughnan of the AA says: "A word of caution on this; be careful about the passenger side airbag - it is conceivable that a rearward facing child seat on the passenger side could actually be struck by the explosive inflation of the airbag. This could injure the baby. Cars now carry warning stickers to remind you of that danger."
Drivers are advised to ask their car dealer for specific advice on your exact model. It might be possible to slide the seat all the way back on its runners and take the baby seat out of range.
Otherwise you will need to disable the passenger side airbag - an easy procedure for your dealer - for the months when the baby is travelling in the front seat.
Safety is the factor of highest concern - risk of death or injury from frontal collisions and rollovers is reduced by travelling in the rear. By the time a child reaches the age of 12 their anatomy and sheer size has developed to the point where they can travel in the front.
Mr Faughnan says: "It's something of an arbitrary age limit of course - but the line has to be drawn somewhere. On a mechanical and technical note, the iliac crests of the pelvis do not develop fully until approximately 10 years of age, and this is important for the lap portion of the seatbelt."
The most annoying thing he sees on the roads these days is children without seatbelts of any sort: "It really baffles me how any parent can allow this."
In a collision at 30 miles per hour the driver of the car will be shaken and bruised, but probably not seriously injured if wearing a seatbelt.
However, the child without the seatbelt in the back will probably be dead in such a collision. At the point of impact the child will continue forward inside the car at 30 mph and will strike head-first either on the windscreen or the head of the front seat passenger at that speed. It's vital, therefore, to ensure that children wear seatbelts.
The traffic and road safety manager for the RAC, Kevin Delaney, says: "The legal position in Britain is that children are allowed to travel in any seat provided an appropriate child restraint is used. In practice this will either be a forward or rear facing child seat, a child adjustable seatbelt, or a normal seatbelt with a booster cushion.
"It's a criminal offence to allow a child under 14 to travel in a car without wearing a seatbelt. The driver is strictly liable."
Finally, Mr Delaney agrees with Mr Faughnan that from a safety point of view, rear facing child seats should never be fitted to any seat with an air bag in front of it. "Many years of painful practical experience leads me to advise that children between 18 months and 10 years should be kept safely belted into back seats where they can't reach any of the controls, gadgets, or anything on the dashboard."