Each year Hampshire Trading Standards offers free child car seat safety checks at locations around the county. Last year the team found that just over 50 per cent of the seats inspected were deemed to be incorrectly fitted or unacceptable, down from nearly 70 per cent the year before. The drop reflects a growing trend among retailers who are offering a fitting service as well as general improvements in seat design.

Although this is a change for the better Hampshire Trading Standards is still concerned that 20 per cent of the seats were found to be incompatible with the vehicle or in need of major adjustment and/or repair. This means that if a child using one of these seats was involved in a car accident they would not have been properly protected.

	Total Tested	Correct at Presentation	Major Adjustment	Minor Adjustment	Incompatible with Car	Condemned
2007	216	135	20	51	9	1
2006	258	122	45	84	6	1
2005	209	71	47	76	12	3
2004	244	72	47	87	32	6
2003	243	91	33	92	24	3
2002	228	82	21	93	22	10