Parliamentary select committee meetings are often grey affairs, but former transport secretary Louise Haigh livened up the transport select committee on 13 November when she revealed that her department is working on legalising the use of private e-scooters on UK roads. However, just as we were going to press, breaking news revealed that Haigh has resigned due to a historic fraud conviction.
At the moment, the only e-scooters that are legal for road use are the those in corporate rental schemes, available in limited areas of the country. Any other powered scooter is classified by Britain’s Victorian-era highways laws as a motor vehicle, in the same class as a Ducati superbike or Range Rover SUV, with the same need to follow construction and use regulations, MOT tests, insurance, licence, VED and number plate rules.
But as anyone living in a big city will know, the law is being made an ass of by widespread flouting of those rules: e-scooters aren’t illegal to sell or own – it’s their use on the public highway which is unlawful. And they’re being sold by unscrupulous sellers, then used on the roads everywhere by owners either ignorant of the law or indifferent to its application. A legal basis for their use could offer a fillip to the bike trade, with a proper market opening for the ethical sale of e-scooters, servicing, spares, protective kit, and even training, as part of new government rules.
Louise Haigh told the select committee that introducing proper regulations fit for use on e-scooters is definitely required and backed their use as part of a modern transport infrastructure, where they could be a “really effective part of an integrated transport strategy.”
But there’s no timeline for the changes as yet, and they don’t seem to be imminent. “We’ve not got parliamentary time in this session or a relevant Bill that could be used to regulate e-scooters,” said Haigh. “But we will look to legislate, absolutely. It’s clearly required. It’s not good enough that it’s been left in this situation for too long.”