Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Public chargepoints for electric vehicles, published on 13 December 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ensuring compliance with the electric chargepoint accessibility standard on (a) industry and (b) local authorities.

Publicly Available Standard 1899 was co-sponsored by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles and the national disability charity Motability. The standard was developed in close collaboration with industry, disabled users, accessibility experts, charities, consumer groups and the devolved administrations. PAS 1899 provides specifications on designing and installing accessible public EV chargepoints, meeting the industry need for standardised guidance on what accessible public chargepoint design consists of and how it can be deployed.

Whilst compliance with PAS 1899 is voluntary, legal obligations pertaining to the Equality Act 2010 have to be adhered to.

The Government, in collaboration with the British Standards Institute and Motability, is spearheading the Technical Working Group conducting the two-year review of PAS 1899, with results anticipated by the end of the first quarter of 2025.