Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy of schemes offered by the Government to encourage more people to buy electric vehicles and (b) effectiveness of those schemes in helping the UK reach its net zero targets.

This Government is committed to the transition to electric vehicles (EV) and is encouraging uptake through a range of taxation incentives and grants.

Drivers of zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) will continue to benefit from favourable tax rates, such as generous company car tax incentives, which have been set until March 2030. ZEVs remain exempt from vehicle excise duty (VED) until April 2025, after which they will still have preferential first year rates.

In addition, the Government has announced £120m for next financial year to support the purchase of new electric vans and manufacturing of wheelchair accessible vehicles.

The Government is also committed to accelerating the rollout of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an EV. As of 1 November, there are over 71,000 publicly available charging devices in the UK, alongside 680,000 private chargepoints in England alone, supporting drivers to switch to EVs.