PACTS - the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety - has said the likelihood of legislating for private e-scooters with regulations that set safety as the main priority in 2024 is “zero”.
The charity, which advises members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords on air, rail and road safety issues, said it has been informed that there is insufficient Parliamentary time to consult on e-scooters.
While e-scooters can be rented as part of official trials, riding privately-owned e-scooters on public roads is currently illegal in the UK.
In 2022 the government announced that the vehicles would be made legal through the creation of a low-speed, zero-emission vehicle category but this has now been delayed several times, despite various charities, e-scooter operators and retailers calling for the government to bring forward legislation.
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Labour has also claimed the government is ducking its responsibility to regulate e-bikes and e-scooters, after the House of Commons recently cleared the Pedicabs (London) Bill which will pave the way for those vehicles to be regulated.
Shadow transport minister Simon Lightwood told MPs: “Whilst there was no doubt that this bill is hugely welcome to London’s West End and a handful of other London areas, these measures should have been introduced as part of a far wider transport bill.
“Because elsewhere in transport policy, there remains desperate need for major transport reform, particularly on e-bikes and e-scooters, but the government continues to duck this responsibility and has refused to use this opportunity to bring forward a long-promised and long-delayed transport bill.”
Transport minister Guy Opperman said regulating e-scooters and e-bikes would be ‘complex’.
"There has to be regulation going forward. I am very keen to see that, but again… there has to be a way to get what is the right form of regulation to allow this to go ahead," he said.
The government recently announced an extension to the current rental trials for e-scooters to May 2026, which will enable it to continue evaluating their usage and safety impacts.
But PACTS said that will, “go no way towards dealing with the over one million privately-owned e-scooters which are evidently being used illegally on public roads.
"These vehicles do not pass testing, standard setting, or type approval because they are not regulated for use as motor vehicles. As such they bring unnecessary hazards to riders and danger to other road users."
PACTS said the Department for Transport, with other departments, should take action to address potentially dangerous and illegal private e-scooter use by issuing clear information to the public, taking action against retailers which fail to properly inform customers, and supporting the police in taking enforcement action.
The charity said that, “if, as the then Minister Baroness Vere announced in May 2022, 'safety is also at the heart of our plans' then a new bill is needed specifically to create a regulatory framework for smaller, lighter, zero-emission vehicles, as part of a new low-speed, zero-emission vehicle category”.