Child car seats become compulsory on Monday for all children up to the age of 12.

Sales of have seats have soared ahead of new laws, retailers said today. But many parents still remain unaware of the change - a recent survey by Mother and Baby magazine showed that one in three mothers did not know of it.

Under the reforms, from Monday, any youngster aged up to 12 or shorter than 135cm (approximately 4ft 5ins) will have to use a child seat or booster - even if they have already spent several years in adult seats.

The new rules apply to children travelling in cars, vans and goods vehicles.

Exceptions to the new laws are when children travel in the rear seats of taxis, or during short emergency journeys - which does not cover school runs.

There is also an exception for a third child travelling in the rear when the vehicle has room for only two booster seats.

Breaking the new law will lead to a £30 on-the-spot fine for the driver, or a maximum fine of £500 if convicted in court.

The new measures aim to cut child deaths and injuries in road accidents.

Halfords said that its sales of child car and booster seats had doubled over the last two months compared to the same time last year. Asda, the supermarket chain, reported a near four-fold increase, and

Tesco said that sales of its booster seats - which retail for between £30 and £150 - were up 1,000 per cent.

Asda is calling on the Government to drop the VAT on car seats to help parents who will be obliged to buy them.

The supermarket chain said it was dropping its own prices by around 10 per cent to cover the cost of the tax.

Asda’s health and beauty director David Miles said the new legislation means parents will face a "huge" expense. He said: "Asda would like to see VAT scrapped on child seats and is doing its bit by rolling back the price of all car seats to make them more affordable. We think the Government should also help reduce prices and end VAT on child car seats."

Halfords is conducting a publicity drive to alert parents, and has installed child measuring devices in its 400 UK stores to illustrate the new requirements.

The chain’s head of PR Barbara Cadd said: "Sales have doubled and they are still rising. "We knew there was going to be massive demand for these so we ordered several thousand seats more than we would have done last year."

She warned that child car seats should be properly fitted by a trained member of staff.

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