Found: working to make our roads less congested and polluted by promoting lower carbon transport, including cycling

Found: Good quality cycling and walking routes such as cycle lanes, footpaths and bike parking to help encourage

Found: House of 13 July 1992 (see Appendix ) and his additional declarations as co-chair of the APPG on cycling

Found: urban environment and has transformed a tarmacked area into a green public space that encourages cycling

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of requiring all (a) e-bikes and (b) e-scooters to be registered to an owner.

Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

There is already legislation in place that governs the use of e-scooters on public land. E-scooters meet the definition of a ‘motor vehicle’ under the Road Traffic Act 1988. Therefore, as well as having to be registered, taxed, and insured, they must meet all other legal requirements of a motor vehicle to be used on the road. By their design, e-scooters complying with the wide range of requirements is difficult to achieve. Consequentially, most private e-scooters are illegal to use on the road, cycle lanes or pavements (i.e. otherwise than on private land), and rental e-scooters can only be used in rental e-scooter trial area.

The Department considered the potential advantages and disadvantages of a mandatory registration and licensing system for cycle ownership as part of a comprehensive cycling and walking safety review in 2018. This found that the cost and complexity of such a system would outweigh the benefits, and that restricting people’s ability to cycle in this way would mean that many would be likely to choose other modes of transport instead, with negative impacts for congestion, pollution, and health. However all policies are kept under review.

If e-cycles exceed the criteria in the Electrically Pedal Assisted Cycles Regulations (1983), then, among other criteria limits power and speed, they are also classed as motor vehicles, requiring tax, insurance, and similar requirements.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will (a) make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of crime levels in (i) Preston and (ii) Lancashire and (b) take steps to develop a plan to reduce bicycle theft in those areas.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government recognises the impact acquisitive crime can have on individuals and communities. The 2021 Beating Crime Plan, sets out the Government’s strategy for cutting crime, protecting the law-abiding majority and making neighbourhoods safe. The plan can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1015382/Crime-plan-v10.pdf.

Since 2010, overall crime excluding fraud and computer misuse is down by 55%, and we welcome the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales data, which shows that bicycle theft is also down 55% when comparing findings from the year ending September 2023 with the year ending March 2010.

A key part of making acquisitive crime less attractive to criminals is making stolen goods harder to sell on. That is why we are working closely with policing and academic leads to examine what more can be done to tackle the disposal markets for stolen goods and reduce the profit from acquisitive crime.

This Government also established the Safer Streets Fund. Since its inception in 2020, we have invested over £150 million to deliver interventions across England and Wales helping to tackle and prevent violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime. This includes investing just over £3.4 million in Lancashire, funding a range of initiatives such as CCTV and street lighting, improvements to home security measures and youth engagement and educational programmes.

The Home Office is working closely with the British Transport Police (BTP), the national lead for cycle theft, to tackle the theft of bicycles. The BTP has launched the ‘double lock it’ campaign with police forces and organisations, providing advice to owners on how to protect their bicycles: https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/double-lock-it/.

The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Cycling and Walking Plan for England, also sets out initiatives to combat cycle theft, including encouraging retailers to number the bicycles they sell and offer customers the opportunity to register their bicycle on a database at the point of sale. The Plan is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-plan-for-england.

The BTP-led National Cycle Crime Group, working with DfT, have set up Cycle Crime Reduction Partnerships across the country to coordinate regional enforcement activity to disrupt organised cycle theft.

Found: Responsible for policy measures to reduce air pollution from transport, such as schemes to promote cycling

Found: and walking?

Found: Leicestershire Local Cycling & Walking Strategy 3.9 The vision for Leicestershire’s Cycling and Walking

Found: This is in conflict with the March 2023 DoT and Active Travel England policy paper , The Second Cycling

Found: £101 million investment to boost cycling and walking nationwide

Found: , training and promotion The capability fund supports delivery of objectives set out in the second cycling

Found: transport authority allocations Public attitudes towards traffic, road use and low-traffic neighbourhoods Cycling

Found: Motoring agencies (DVLA, DVSA, VCA) ● Local transport including buses, taxis, light rail ● Active travel (cycling

Found: is being funded as part of our UCI Cycling World Championships response, and offers a wide range of cycling