Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 1
Third Report: E-scooters: pavement nuisance or transport innovation?
Published 2 Oct 2020
Paragraph 16
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee E-scooters All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Privately owned e-scooters are already a familiar sight in many British towns and cities, despite remaining illegal to use on roads and pavements. They have the potential to offer a low cost, accessible and environmentally friendly alternative to the private car. The Department for Transport’s focus must be on developing and implementing a sensible and proportionate regulatory framework for legal e-scooter use, drawing on lessons from other countries, which ensures that potential negative impacts on pedestrians and disabled people are avoided.
From: Transport Committee, Third Report: E-scooters: pavement nuisance or transport innovation? (HC 255), paragraph 16, 2 October 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 December 2020 (deadline 2 December 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report and says evidence from the time-limited trials, running until autumn 2021, will inform decisions on whether to proceed with any legislative changes, and if so on what basis.
- On the regulatory framework and driving licences, the government "partly agrees", saying it will understand impacts first and "will consider all the evidence from trials before making any specific decisions" on licence requirements, should e-scooters be legalised.
- On pavement riding, it agrees and says it "is considering a range of options to monitor its extent"; if legalised, "pavement use would remain prohibited".
- On environmental impact, it "partly agrees", noting that setting local sustainability objectives "was not a condition set by the Government", but agrees that environmental impacts be monitored.
- It agrees to publish the central evaluation framework for the rental trials, saying that "Once finalised it will be made publicly available".