Question
I associate myself with your remarks, Mr Speaker, regarding the outgoing Clerk of the House, Tom Goldsmith. We have spent many an hour sitting in various meetings together, and I very much appreciate his wise words. E-bikes and e-scooters are an incredibly important part of active travel. My constituency has a trial of e-scooters that has been going on for several years. That is fabulous, but unfortunately it has led to a rise in illegal e-scooters. When I met Essex police recently, it told me that illegal e-scooters are difficult to intercept, but when it does confiscate them, they are difficult to store because of concerns about battery fires. The problem is that so many people, when they buy e-bikes or e-scooters, do not realise that it is illegal to ride them, and we really need to do something about that. It is the people who buy them who end up paying the price if they do not understand that they cannot use them, and Essex police has to pick up the pieces.
Answer
The hon. Member makes a very fair point. One of the purposes of the cross-departmental working group is to work with Home Office officials and Ministers to understand the limitations on police actions and to see whether we can find novel methods of tackling this issue. We would be very grateful to receive any information that she has from her local constabulary.
Verdict: AMBER (30/100)
The reply only partly answers the question. It is concrete about one thing: it describes a cross-departmental working group, with the Home Office, examining police powers. It does not address the central point of whether the public is aware that the activity is illegal, and it focuses on enforcement instead. The asker would likely need to ask again about public awareness.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the Government doing about the lack of public awareness that it is illegal to ride certain e-bikes and e-scooters, such as privately owned e-scooters outside trial schemes? | Partially Addressed | Direct | Statement 2 names a concrete mechanism, a cross-departmental working group examining police powers with the Home Office, but it addresses enforcement and the limits on police action rather than the lack of public awareness that the activity is illegal. Statements 1 and 3 are acknowledgements and a request for information, not substantive answers. |