Private e-scooters may soon be legal on the roads, said Transport Minister Grant Shaps.
Mr Schaps said Commons Transport Select legislation would be included in the Queen’s speech on 10 May.
Currently, electronic scooters can only be used on the roads in England if they are part of a trial rental scheme. They must have safety features, including automatic lights and a top speed of 15.5 miles per hour.
Private e-scooters can only be used legally on private land, but are common in cities across the country.
The transport secretary told the commission: “In the future, I want to fight the illegal use of non-compliant electronic scooters on the roads.”
Conservative MP Simon Jupp expressed concern about the safety of electronic scooters, saying there had been “900 collisions, 11 of which were fatal”.
He said he was concerned that Mr Schaps’ comments showed that the Ministry of Transport (DfT) was considering allowing private electronic scooters on the road, as long as they met similar safety specifications as those in the tests.
“We will take the power to regulate properly and then we will be able to decide how to use them,” Mr Schaps promised.
“They are a reality, they exist.
“If these things exist, they need to be secured, and I think the experiments have been useful in collecting data and there is more data to collect.”
Image: E-scooters are currently only legal on public roads if they are part of a rental trial
Ben Bradshaw, another member of the commission, said electronic scooters were “a convenient, cheap and environmentally friendly form of transport”.
He asked Mr Schaps when “DfT will” move and license these things properly? “
Mr Schaps replied: “I will announce it on 10 May”.
Read more: A teenager died after colliding with an electric scooter, colliding with a van.
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1:10 A drunk man on a scooter stopped on a busy highway
AA President Edmund King said after the session: “It is right for the government to address this issue and introduce regulations, instead of allowing some of our cities to be overcrowded like the Wild West with illegal scooters.
“Micromobility and electronic technology can have a positive effect on traffic in our cities, but we need to ensure that traffic is safe.”
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