Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) legal and (b) industry standards for emerging technologies for autonomous vehicles.

The Government paper “Connected & Automated Mobility 2025: realising the benefits of self-driving vehicles in the UK” sets out the Government’s plans to support the development and deployment of safe self-driving vehicles in the UK. This includes proposals for a comprehensive regulatory, legislative and safety framework. The Department remains committed to these plans will bring forward primary legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Alongside developing legal and regulatory frameworks, the government has committed £100 million of new Research and Development funding following the Government’s Spending Review for the period 2022/23 to 2024/25, which is allocated to the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) through two Departments:

1. £66 million in the Department for Business and Trade to support commercial deployment of connected and self-driving technologies.
2. £34 million in the Department for Transport (DfT) for creation of a safety assurance framework for self-driving vehicles.