§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the outcome of the 5 December 2000 meeting with the Motor Trade Liaison Group, with reference to children's seatbelts. [144700]
§ Mr. HillThe question of testing child restraints in the MOT test was discussed with trade representatives at the 5 December meeting.
The consensus view of the meeting was that it would be impractical to include child restraints as a formal item of test. It was agreed instead that MOT testers would, in future, give advice to vehicle presenters about the fitment of child restraints whenever they noticed an apparent problem. The Department will also be running a major publicity campaign about child restraints towards the end of January and also during February. This will give 'best practice' advice on both the radio and in the 'Mother and Baby' magazine, and will include the distribution of reminder cards for people to keep.