Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 June 2025 to Question 55229 on Electric Bicycles: Sales, whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of enforcement action taken by Local Authority Trading Standards against the sale of illegally modified electric bikes in the last 12 months.
Under product safety regulations, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and Local Authority Trading Standards (LATS) have powers to remove unsafe products or prevent them entering the UK. In 2023-2024, 2.4m goods, including e-bikes, were denied entry. LATS report serious risk products to OPSS, which has published 22 recalls and 29 other safety alerts on unsafe e-bikes and associated products since 2022. Last year OPSS led a LATS programme to inspect businesses that repair, maintain or modify e-bikes and raise awareness of legal responsibilities for safety.
Enforcement of illegally modified electric bikes on public roads is a police matter.