Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of fires that have been caused by the batteries of (a) e-scooters and (b) e-bikes in the last 12 months.

The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here: Fire statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Data collected through the Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved batteries of either e-bikes or e-scooters..

We are reviewing the IRS, and the data it collects, and considering what categories to record in the future. Adding new categories, including lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, e-scooters and e-bikes, to the data collection will be considered as part of the work to reform the IRS with a modern, secure, and flexible system.