Question
Cumbria police do really good work tackling the use of illegal e-bikes, but with ever-growing numbers of them hitting our streets every single week, Cumbria’s police, fire and crime commissioner and I believe that the single biggest help that we could give the police would be to ban the sale of illegal e-bikes, as my ten-minute rule Bill proposes. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade about regulation to achieve that?
Answer
I thank my hon. Friend for her work on this issue. We are talking to the Department for Transport about exactly what we need to do to tackle the scourge of e-bikes and e-scooters. Every MP in this place will be facing the same challenge, and I hope that everybody would agree that we cannot allow this kind of behaviour to continue. We are looking at what else can be done. We have changed the powers in the Bill to move us in the right direction. I am talking to the police about what more support they need, and we will continue to have those conversations across Government.12% vibes
Verdict: RED (12/100)
The question asked about the Home Office's engagement with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The reply instead describes talks with the Department for Transport, which is a different department, so it does not answer what was asked. Its only reference to cross-government work is a general mention of "conversations across Government" that never names the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade or says what the engagement involved. The asker would most likely need to submit a follow-up question.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the nature of the Home Office's engagement with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade on regulation to ban the sale of illegal e-bikes? | Partially Addressed | Hedged MISREADS QUESTION | The question asks about the Home Office's engagement with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, but the reply describes talks with the Department for Transport (seq 2), a different department. The only statement that touches on cross-government engagement (seq 8, "conversations across Government") is generic and never names DBT or describes what that engagement involves. |