e-scooters must be legalised across the UK to dramatically improve safety, clamping down on the hundreds of thousands of unregulated vehicles already in use.

The UK is the only developed nation without either e-scooter legalisation or a plan for it

The call comes from across the transport, retail, manufacturing, legal, research and university sectors, which have come together to urge the Government to bring forward legislation that would create a new powered light vehicle class.

The move would ensure e-scooters, whether rented in shared use schemes or privately owned, are subject to high safety standards.

Current e-scooter trials, which began in 2020, have been “highly popular” with over 15 million rides taking place in the UK so far. But the overwhelming growth in usage has been in private e-scooters outside of rental trials, where the UK has no standards for critical aspects such as their top speed, acceleration, braking, lighting, weight distribution.

The campaigners say a change in the law would define e-scooters to a high standard of safety and help to lower greenhouse gas emissions from transport, as well as cutting congestion and repurposing streets away from cars.

Their letter adds that the UK is the only developed nation without legislation or a plan for e-scooter legislation, and explains how new regulations would help to grow “clean jobs”.

The organisations are shared transport charity Collaborative Mobility UK (CoMoUK), the Centre for London think-tank, retailer Pure Electric, manufacturer Taur, WMG at the University of Warwick, research technology organisation Cenex, campaigning climate change charity Possible, the Major Trauma Group of trauma victims and the London Cycling Campaign.

It’s the latest demand to the Government to tackle illegal e-scooter use – last month saw the independent Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) warn of a rising number of deaths among riders.

In its report, PACTS revealed that 15 people have now died from using e-scooters – up from 11 in 2021 and all involving illegal use of private e-scooters. More than one million of these have been imported to the UK since 2019 and while they can legally be sold, they are illegal to use on public roads and in public spaces.

Although the rental trials were intended to provide evidence for new legislation, no information has been published and PACTS has said that the Government seems undecided on the next steps.

But it warns that any regulations to legalise e-scooters will take at least a year to have any effect and it’s now urging the Department for Transport to undertake a thorough public consultation before making any decision – a call now being shared by CoMoUK and other organisations.

The open letter from CoMoUK is being shared with the media, and will also be sent to the Department for Transport.