BBC Look East featured the latest ‘crackdown’ on illegal e-scooters on Cambridge’s streets on 24 Nov 2025. Given the extended trials, the environmental benefits vs motor vehicles, and the fact that so many people are now using them anyway in breach of the law, why are ministers unwilling to legalise, tax, and regulate them?
Image: The mess of VOI e-scooters clutterring the streets of Cambridge, symptomatic of irresponsible firms and enfeebled local government in England.
“What’s the problem?”
This:
‘Why Private E-Scooters Are Illegal: Electric scooters are classified as motor vehicles under the Road Traffic Act 1988, which means they legally require vehicle registration with the DVLA, motor insurance coverage, valid MOT certification (for vehicles over three years old), road tax payment (or exemption certificate), and compliance with UK vehicle construction and use regulations (proper lighting, braking systems, mirrors, etc.). The fundamental problem is that no registration system currently exists that allows private electric scooters to meet these requirements.”
Above – Levy Electric 31 Oct 2025
And people are asking nicely – such as in this petition to Parliament
BBC Look East should upload their permanent recording of this for others to reference to because it was a very good news report. But they have a habit of zapping their local news programmes 24 hours after broadcast which is a shame. So you’ve got this byline instead.
Above – BBC Look East’s report of 24 Nov 2025 – screengrab of e-scooter being ridden illegally before being stopped by police
“Official schemes do have insurance and check driving licences but you cannot individually get private e-scooter insurance.”
Above – BBC Cambridgeshire 12 Nov 2025
The madness/incredulity of the longstanding position of the Government (previous and current) is unsustainable
“Here in the UK, it’s perfectly legal to buy an e-scooter… but it would then be illegal to ride it. At the same time, the law does permit you to hire an e-scooter and ride it on public roads.”
“Even Halfords has released one, using the launch as an opportunity to call for them to be made road legal.“
Above – Alex Bowden, 07 Oct 2025
“Although it’s illegal to ride a privately owned e-scooter on public roads, they are widely available for sale. It’s estimated that more than 750,000 private e-scooters have been bought.“
Above: Nicholas Lyes, IAM RoadSmart director of policy and standards to RoadsafetyGB 25 Feb 2025
That also means hundreds of teenagers have been prosecuted for being uninsured. Which inevitatably and needlessly impacts on their future job prospects.
“The Government needs to urgently bring forward legislation on private e-scooters, which must include minimum type approval device standards, speed limiters and proposals for riders to have a minimum level of competency.”
Above – Lyes (2025)
We’re still waiting for the policy papers from which the legislation can be drafted
The then Labour MP Ben Bradshaw tabled a written Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport on regulating such electronic low-speed vehicles on 17 Nov 2022.
“To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals on light powered vehicles to enable the creation of appropriate legal standards for e-scooters.”
The response from former David Cameron ally and the ‘brains behind Big Society policy’ (Remember that?!?) Jesse Norman responded:
“Government intends to create a Low-speed Zero Emission Vehicle (LZEV) category that is distinct from the cycle and motor vehicle categories. The first beneficiaries of this new system will be e-scooters. No final decisions about e-scooter regulations have been made and the Department will consult publicly before any new arrangements come into force. A full set of findings from our evaluation of the e-scooter trials will be published in due course.”
“Progress update?”
Tumbleweed. This was ultimately the result of Cameron’s catastrophic EU Referendum promise that blew up in everyones faces. It’s up to Cabinet Ministers how they deploy their civil servants when it comes to policy-making. The mess that Brexit created for transport meant that there was no policy capacity post-2015 to work up proposals for low speed e-vehicles.
What’s infuriating about the current situation is…
…most of the people who are using privately-owned e-scooters for non-criminal purposes (eg street robberies) are likely doing so because it’s the most convenient method of transport to get from A-to-B. Furthermore, if the alternative is a motorbike or motorcar, then the law and government policies are pushing people towards vehicles that are more expensive, more environmentally harmful, and more damaging to road surfaces. Which is…exactly.
Furthermore, if ministers commissioned a system that required the registration of all e-vehicles then it might be easier to identify those that are using said vehicles for criminal purposes. At the moment there is no consistent means of identifying privately-owned e-scooters, nor is there any UK-approved safety standard.
Given that it’s younger adults and teenagers that are disproportionately more likely to be using such e-vehicles, there must be a strong public interest in regulating and taxing such vehicles so that they can use them reasonably safely while at the same time redesigning our street designs and urban landscape to make cycles, scooters, and e-micro cars aka quadricycles the easier choice vs the motor car.
Note the Levy Electric article later down the page looks at what needs happen to make existing e-scooters lawful. One for public policy people.
Let’s see what The Budget says at lunchtime…
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