Mr Shapps told the Commons Transport Select committee the legislation would be included in the Queen’s speech on 10 May. At present, scooters can only be used on roads in England if they are part of a test rental system. They must have safety features such as automatic lights and top speeds of 15.5 mph. Private scooters can only be used legally on private land, however, they often occur in cities and towns across the country. The transport secretary told the committee: “In the future, I want to fight the illegal use of non-compliant electronic scooters on the roads.” Conservative MP Simon Jupp expressed concern about the safety of electronic scooters, saying there had been “900 collisions, 11 of which were fatal”. He said he was concerned that Mr Shapps’s comments showed that the Department of Transportation (DfT) was considering allowing private electronic scooters on the roads if they met similar safety standards to those in the tests. “We will take power to regulate properly and then be able to decide on their use,” Mr Saps promised. “It’s a reality, they exist. “If these things exist, they have to be safe and I think the tests were useful for data collection and there is even more data to be collected.” Image: Electronic scooters are currently legal on public roads only if they are part of a rental test Ben Bradshaw, another member of the committee, said electronic scooters were a “convenient, inexpensive and environmentally friendly form of transport”. He asked Mr. Shapps when DfT “will go ahead and license these things properly?” Mr Shapps replied: “I will announce it on May 10.” Read more: Teenage girl dies after electronic scooter collision leading to vanE-scooter collision in London rose to more than 250 accidents in the first half of last year Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 1:10 Drunk man with an electronic scooter stopped on a busy highway AA President Edmund King said after the meeting: “The government is right to address this issue and enact regulations instead of allowing some of our cities to be violated like the Wild West by illegal scooters. “Micro-mobility and electronic technology can have a positive effect on traffic in our cities, but we must ensure that movement is safe.”
