Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to recommend a further 12 month period of operation for the e-scooter trial scheme being run in Middlesbrough by Ginger, which was launched in July 2020.

The Secretary of State has made no recommendation to Middlesbrough, or any other e-scooter trial area, regarding either continued participation in the trials, or the appointment of any e-scooter operator. E-scooter trials were originally meant to end on 30 November 2021, but trials were extended until 31 March 2022 to take into account the slower start to trials as a result of the pandemic. In October 2021 trials were further extended to 30 November 2022. The further extension will allow us to continue to fill data gaps and allow us to collect more evidence. We wrote to all trial areas in January asking them if they wanted to extend their current trials to November 2022. We have always been clear that participation in trials is entirely voluntary and the decision must be made locally.