Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 24
14th Report - Public charge points for electric vehicles
Published 12 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Public charge points for electric vehicles All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
When asked how it will monitor whether the regulations are working as intended the Department stated that it is only just starting to see the impact of these regulations and will keep them under review, in part 41 C&AG’s Report para 15 42 Q 82; C&AG’s Report paras 15, 3.3 and Figure 10 16 through the public attitudes work that the Department does to monitor consumer sentiment about electric vehicles. It anticipates that this research will also alert it to new concerns, such as perceived barriers to adoption by drivers who do not use an electric vehicle, as well as the likelihood of existing electric vehicle owners to switch back to petrol or diesel vehicles.43 In looking at whether areas of poor reliability could emerge within the 99% reliability standard for rapid chargers, the Department responded that the 99% standard applied to each charge point operator and that they thought it was exacting enough to ensure there was not much variability across an operator’s network. It stated that it will be monitoring the data on reliability and anticipates that the wider electric vehicle community are also likely to be paying attention to which operators meet the standard or otherwise.44 The cost of charging
From: Public Accounts Committee, 14th Report - Public charge points for electric vehicles (HC 512), 12 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourteenth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fourteenth report from Session 2024-25
Published 16 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the six conclusions, with commitments to write to the Committee in September 2025 and to confirm other next steps "in due course".
- On local variation in charge point need, it will "look to take a similar needs-based approach to any interventions required in future" and will pay close attention to outcomes from early LEVI Fund procurements.
- On LEVI and on ultra-rapid charge points at motorway service areas, the department will write to the Committee within six months (target date September 2025) with updates on progress.
- On accessibility, it is reviewing the PAS 1899:2022 standard, and recommendations and proposed next steps "will be confirmed in due course". Target implementation date: December 2025.
- On VAT and charging costs, it will "continue to work with HM Treasury to understand the variance in costs" between public and domestic charging and the extent to which any policy change might affect public charging prices.