Is a car seat required by law in a taxi?

The rule that applies to your own car doesn't carry over to a licensed taxi or private hire vehicle. In one, a child over 3 years old is legally allowed to travel using the adult seat belt instead of a booster, and a child under 3 is legally allowed to travel unrestrained in the back seat if no suitable child seat is available. It's a long-standing exemption, written into UK child car seat law specifically because taxis can't guarantee they'll have every seat size on board for every job. That's the current position as we understand it; car seat law is occasionally amended, so if you need the precise legal wording rather than the practical summary, check gov.uk before you travel.

Source: GOV.UK, child car seats: when a child can travel without one. Checked September 2026.

Legal and safe aren't the same question. An adult belt across a small child, or no restraint at all for a toddler, isn't how we'd carry our own kids, so every booking lets you add a proper seat: an infant seat for 0 to 12 months, a child seat for 1 to 4 years, or a booster for over 4s. Each one is £5, fitted before the driver sets off to collect you, and available subject to what's in the car that day. No seat is free of charge, and we'd rather say that plainly at booking than have it come as a surprise at the kerb.

If you'd rather use your own seat, that's straightforward: bring it with you and the driver will help you get it into the car, though it's worth checking the fit yourself since it's your equipment. What we don't offer is a place to leave it. If you're flying out for a week or two and don't want to carry an infant seat through the terminal both ways, we understand why that's tempting, but we don't run a storage service between your outbound and return flights. The practical options are to book one of our £5 seats for both legs instead, or bring your own and carry it there and back.