Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether penalty points can be applied to a safety operator supervising an autonomous system when the vehicle commits an offence without manual input.

Whereas the drivers of normal road vehicles require driving licences, onto which penalty points may be endorsed if they commit relevant offences, this is not the case with operators of automated vehicles.

As set out in the Automated Vehicles Act 2024, a range of civil and criminal sanctions will be available to the in-use regulatory scheme to ensure that operators are held accountable for the behaviour of their vehicles, and for any failures to comply with regulatory requirements. Views are being sought on these sanctions as part of the continuing Call for Evidence, “Developing the Automated Vehicles Regulatory Framework”.