E-scooters may need licence plates after high-profile crashes

Licence plates, tests and insurance – these are just some of the hoops e-scooter riders might face in the future to target ‘lawless’ use.

Ministers are working on plans to regulate e-scooters in the UK after concerns over their use in crime and safety issues.

Work is underway for tougher measures to crackdown on privately owned scooters following a spate of crashes and a rise in e-scooter-related crime.

Measures could include licencing, tests, insurance, and a minimum age requirement, Metro understands.

Ministers are also contemplating setting the maximum e-scooter speed limit at 12.5mph.

Private electric scooters are banned on public roads, but they are a common sight across London and the UK.

Figures from the police show that e-scooters were involved in over 20,000 crimes over three years leading up to 2024, including drug crime and robberies.

E-scooters have been illegally modified to go faster than they are designed to. A modified scooter capable of going at 62mph was caught in Merseyside last week.

People have been seriously injured when e-scooter riders have knocked them over, and campaigners have said that unregulated e-scooters are a risk to blind and disabled people.

Raquel Delgado-Calos, a veterinary surgeon, suffered a fractured skull when scooter rider Joseph Pedelty jumped a red light and mowed her down in Portsmouth last year.

In 2022, grandmother Linda Davis, 71, died five days after being hit by an e-scooter in Nottinghamshire during a walk, ridden by a 14-year-old boy.

The planned legislation would target owned scooters, so not those rented through an app.

A government source told Metro: ‘We will be consulting on the measures. At the moment, e-scooters are unregulated outside the trials, and it is a bit silly that we cannot legislate them.

Possible e-scooter measures

The government is looking into a selection of options, but a source told Metro these are just alternatives and not all of them are likely to happen.

Some of the options are:

• Licence plates for riders
• Requirement to pass mandatory rider training similar to a driving test
• Mandatory insurance, which is unlikely because of the cost of premiums
• Manufacturers to set the speed limit to 12.5mph
• Minimum age requirement of 14

‘We are looking at a spectrum of possibilities, but not all of those are likely to happen.’

The consultation, which could be rolled in early next year, is about ‘safety, but also the way they are used in crime, and that we have an increasing private market of scooters that is unregulated. E-scooters are not limited in terms of speed or weight.’

As a first step, e-scooters need to be made legal so that they can be treated like mopeds, roads lawyer Nick Freeman, known as Mr Loophole, told Metro.

He said: ‘There are around a million private e-scooters on our roads at the moment.

‘It is quite clear that they are very prevalent, very convenient and environmentally friendly, and they do need to be legislated for.

‘It is a bit like turning your blind eye on cannabis use – it is going on obviously, but we need legislation in place to manage the problem rather than pretending they are not there.

‘We need urgently to tackle the problem of lawless possession and lawless use, and it should be done urgently.’

‘If we have relevant legislation in place, it will make e-scooters safer for users, pedestrians and other road users.

‘What I’m hoping the legislation introduces as a starting point is some form of identification plate similar to a motor vehicle.’

He warned that without a form of identification and ways to trace the users the new legislation will be ‘impotent.’

E-scooters are already governed under the Road Traffic Act 1988, so there is already legislation in place ‘to deal with people who are using them,’ Mr Freeman said.

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