On Sunday, 15 February, Transport Minister Heidi Alexander, in an interview with BBC Politics Midlands, finally acknowledged that "the genie is out of the bottle" and that the law needs to be updated to recognise that people across the UK are using privately owned e-scooters in public places.
Current situation
At present, e-scooters are classified as motor vehicles. Though there has been legislation allowing for rental schemes since 2020, privately owned ones cannot meet requirements and so are not legal for use on roads or in other public places. They are also uninsurable, making the MIB responsible for third-party injuries under the Uninsured Drivers Agreement.
We do not know the exact number of privately owned e-scooters in the UK, but estimates are over one million. According to published government data, in 2024, there were 1,339 casualties involving e-scooters. Thirty-two percent of injuries were serious and six were fatalities. The statistics have got worse every year since they began last decade.
The idea of legislating to legalise public use of private e-scooters has been in the works for a few years. In early 2023, Baroness Vere, then Transport Under-Secretary, told the House of Lords that when parliamentary time allowed, the Department for Transport would reclassify e-scooters as low-speed zero emission vehicles, independent of existing cycle and motor vehicle categorisation. This never materialised. Former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh also suggested that she would alter private e-scooter classification to legalise their use in public, but resigned before she did so. It appears that, based on Ms Alexander's comments, e-scooters are back on DfT's radar.
Moving forward
We do not yet know the specifics of what legalised use will look like, but the Transport Secretary gave us some indications. E-scooters will be barred from use on pavements and will face tougher speed limits and safety requirements, including mandatory lights and working brakes. These seem to us to be the bare minimum of requirements. There was no mention of licence plates, or mandatory helmet use, nor insurance.
Most countries in Europe have already legalised the use of private e-scooters. Requirements vary greatly, though many of the countries that started with looser requirements have been tightening them, including Ireland, which now intends to make wearing helmets and hi-vis vests mandatory. Third-party insurance is mandatory in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
The government plans on consulting later this year on the proposed regulations with a view to legalising private e-scooter use by the end of the year.
Comment
We have long called for acknowledgment of the problem of unregulated e-scooter use, and we welcome Ms Alexander's statement. We hope the government will use the substantial data it has collected in the six years the government trial rental schemes have run, alongside the data available from other jurisdictions, to draft regulations that conform to the 'safe system' principles that were introduced as part of the road safety strategy.
Our Strategic Advisory Team will closely monitor developments. If you would like to speak with us about these, please get in touch.
