SCOOTING TO CHANGE: THE NEW GOVERNMENT’S ROLE IN LEGISLATING ON SMALL ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Introduction
Certain (legal) headlines over the summer concentrated on the Automated Vehicles Act 2024, which received Royal Assent on 20 May 2024. This was one of the last Acts to be passed by the previous Government, with the dissolution of Parliament taking place ten days later on 30 May 2024 in advance of the General Election.
It is undoubtedly a significant step forward in the world of advanced, automated and electric vehicle law. It is, however, still to be followed by a “comprehensive programme of secondary legislation” which will “build the new regulatory framework piece by piece”. No statutory instruments have yet been made using the powers set out in that Act.
Moreover, it is only one piece of the puzzle. One area on which the previous Government consistently failed to deliver is in relation to vehicles such as e-scooters and other small electric vehicles. Indeed, whilst welcoming the Automated Vehicles Act 2024, the (then) Opposition took the opportunity to highlight in the House of Commons that they still continued to “look forward to the rest of the transport legislation coming forward…on e-scooters, e-bikes and minimum standards for taxis…”.
However, the much awaited first King’s Speech of the new Labour Government on 17 July 2024 did not go particularly far in dealing with this lacuna, or indeed even setting out its proposals for doing so. Whilst it addressed the fire risks associated with small electric vehicles (on which, see more below), there was little in the way of a more widespread reform of the deficient legislative landscape for this category of vehicle.
This article concentrates in more detail on the position facing the new Government in relation to these small electric vehicles.
Background
Legislation on small electric vehicles, particularly in relation to e-scooters, is long overdue. Currently, it is legal to purchase a private e-scooter, it is illegal to use it on public land. The only way to use an e-scooter in a public area is through a trial scheme. Individuals can hire an approved rental e-scooter in certain areas where these trials are running (although it is still illegal to ride a private e-scooter in these areas).
As long ago as October 2020, the Transport Committee recommended that e-scooters should be legalised, with its report entitled “E-scooters: pavement nuisance or transport innovation” explaining that e-scooters have the potential to offer a low cost, accessible and environmentally friendly alternative to the private car. The Government responded by saying that e-scooter trials were at that point intended to run until Autumn 2021. Those trials would “help build a comprehensive evidence base” that would inform the Government’s decisions on whether to proceed with any legislative changes and, if so, on what basis.
The Government under Boris Johnson then promised such legislation in May 2022. The Queen’s Speech delivered on 10 May 2022 said that there would be a future Transport Bill. Although the speech and supporting documents did not reference small electric vehicles, the Government confirmed the next day that e-scooter regulation would be included in that Transport Bill. Its spokesperson said as follows: “While riding a privately owned e-scooter on public land is currently illegal, we are considering how best to design future regulations and our Transport Bill will help us to take the steps we need to make e-scooters safer and support innovation…safety will always be our top priority and our trials are helping us to better understand the benefits of properly regulated, safety-tested e-scooters and their impact on public space.”
Baroness Vere of Norbiton provided further insight in a speech to the House of Lords as to exactly how the Government in 2022 considered this would operate. She indicated the Government’s intention that “…this bill will create a low speed zero-emission category that is independent from the cycle and motor vehicle categories…New powers would allow the Government to decide the vehicles that fall into this new category in the future and how they should be regulated to make sure they are safe to use. We hope that e-scooters will be the first of these vehicles.”
That legislation did not materialise and was formally postponed in December 2022. The (then) Transport Secretary Mark Harper confirmed to the Transport Select Committee that the Transport Bill, which was to cover the position on e-scooters, would not be put to Parliament in that Parliamentary session which ran until mid-2023.
Nor did this legislation did not make its way into the subsequent Parliamentary session. The Department for Transport is reported to have said to councils in early December 2023 that the legalisation of all e-scooters was “still on the cards but they had so far been unable to secure a slot for the proposed legislation”.
The mixed messages from the Government are also apparent from the history of the trials of public hire e-scooters. They commenced in July 2020 and were initially due to last until November 2021, although this date was extended to 2021 due to the pandemic. They were then extended for reasons not related to the pandemic a number of further times. Many are now currently scheduled to end on 31 May 2026, more than five years after the initially proposed date.
The King’s Speech on 17 July 2024 made no further comment on, for example, the creation of a new category of vehicle or an extension to e-scooter trials. It is therefore unlikely to be on the agenda of the newly formulated House of Commons when it returns to work on 7 October 2024 after the conference season.
However, the new Government is clearly taking the safety risks associated with such vehicles more seriously than its predecessor. It has long been a concern that the lithium batteries used in both e-scooters and e-bikes can be a fire hazard. The London Fire Brigade has explained that when these batteries are damaged or begin to fail they “can start incredibly ferocious fires.” In 2023, they attended 143 e-bike fires along with 36 blazes involving e-scooters. These fires caused around 60 injuries and 3 deaths.
Some safety measures had already been taken in terms of raising public awareness. The London Fire Brigade set up a #ChargeSafe campaign in order to assist users with preventing fires from e-bikes and e-scooters. The previous Government also published guidance as to how best to manage these fire risks in February 2024.
The new Government has taken at least this matter one step further, announcing a new Product Safety and Metrology Bill which will aim to address current and emerging threats to consumer safety. It has been specifically said that the Bill will empower the Government to respond to new product risks and technological risks, including the fire risks caused by e-bike batteries.
Cities in other nations have, however, gone further than this. Melbourne City has recently banned rental e-scooters in their Central Business District for posing what their Lord Mayor, Nicholas Reese, refers to as an “unacceptable safety risk”. Whilst he supported their arrival in the CBD two-and-a-half years ago, he has since “run out of patience” and considers them to be “shameful”. The City Council has elected to end their contracts with rental operators, although individuals will still be able to use private e-scooters.
Comment
It is clear that legislation is needed to regulate this emerging category of vehicle. It is also clear that we may yet have some time to wait for it.
E-scooters (as well as e-bikes) are very popular and seem to be here to stay. Transport for London’s figures from June 2023 said of the London trials alone that, since launching, more than 2.5 million journeys had been made which covered more than 6.46 million kilometres i.e. the equivalent of travelling 161 times around the world. It is worth noting against those figures that the trial is not operating across the whole of London but only certain boroughs.
There is concern around the anti-social use of e-scooters, with many reporting that the devices are being used on pavements and getting in the way of pedestrians. This is particularly difficult for those with disabilities. To take one example, Guide Dogs has presented research showing that “nearly 75% of people with sight loss who have encountered on e-scooter have had a negative experience. Visually impaired people are already being forced to change their behaviour because of e-scooters, with some changing their regular routes and others not leaving home alone.” Guide Dogs does not go on to suggest that e-scooters should not be legalised, but rather than there should be strict caps on the speed, weight and power of all e-scooters, as well as a public information campaign before further proposals on legislation.
How, then, should the new Government tackle this outstanding issue? Indications from previous Governments suggest that this failure to regulate did not arise from a lack of desire, but perhaps a question of competing pressures on Parliamentary time. Notwithstanding that a new party is now in Government, it seems likely that the impetus for legalisation will remain. This is particularly so given that they used the opportunity of the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 receiving Royal Assent to raise the issue.
As to the exact mechanism of that legislation, the creation of a new category of vehicles suggested back in 2022 could well be sensible. This reflects the position of many of those in the industry. To take one example, the Chief Executive of Collaborative Mobility UK said in the wake of the King’s Speech: “Giving e-scooters and other similar vehicles legal status is a common sense move that would bring the UK into line with most other European countries and give people a flexible and green way to get around. In the meantime, we would like England’s e-scooter trials to be expanded, with more vehicles covering wider areas in response to local demand.”
The reality is, however, that those who are now governing have not yet turned their minds to this issue in great detail. That is perhaps understandable in the context of a new administration which has very quickly had to consider its approach to the full ambit of issues affecting the UK, ranging from violence against women and girls, children’s wellbeing, sports reform and mental health legislation. That said, this issue is not going anywhere.
Image by confessus from Pixabay
