Viscount Goschen

The number of instances of fly-tipping reported by local authorities, and the number of successful prosecutions brought over the last three years are set out in the table below.

The data is published on the GOV.UK website.

The overall trend in fly-tipping incidents had shown a steady decline between 2007/08 and 2012/13 until 2013/14 when there was an increase to 852,000 incidents. Prosecutions have been more variable, with a peak in 2011/12. The 2015/16 figure is more average.

Many local authorities have started to improve the way they capture and report fly-tips over the past few years, so the increase over time should be interpreted with some care. It has also been brought to our attention that the definitions used to describe fly-tips are interpreted broadly from the guidance.

In December last year the Minister for Local Transport wrote to the main food delivery companies to remind them of their obligations including the use of modified e-cycles by some delivery riders. The letter signposted government guidance on the safe use of e-cycle batteries including the Office for Product Safety and Standard’s ‘Buy Safe, Be Safe’ campaign. The Department is considering next steps in the light of the responses received.

Enforcement of the rules and regulations in respect of both e-cycles and e-scooters is a matter for the police.

Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles (e-cycles) are legal to use on public roads so long as they comply with the requirements of the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations 1983. Broadly, this means that maximum continuous power of the electric motor must not exceed 250 watts, that the e-cycle must be fitted with pedals capable of propelling it, and that the electrical assistance must cut-off at 15.5mph. The Department does not have data on the number of e-cycles in use that do not comply with these requirements.

Private e-scooters remain illegal to use on public roads, cycle lanes and pavements, and rental e-scooters can only be used in national rental e-scooter trial areas.

In addition to the provision of over £5.5 billion of highways maintenance capital funding for local highways authorities in England over this Parliament, the Department works with all local highway authorities in England along with National Highways to assess road surface condition on a national level. This information is presented annually in “Road conditions in England to March 2022” published on GOV.UK. It includes surface condition, skidding resistance and highway maintenance treatments and expenditure.

The Department is also working with the British Standards Institute and the Transport Research Laboratory to develop a new standard for assessing road condition. This will help authorities identify, assess, and deal with road defects, including potholes, and help drive innovation within the road monitoring sector.

We are in regular dialogue with Govia Thameslink Rail (GTR) who provide Southern services about the performance on their network. We are determined to see services improve and are working hard with the industry to achieve this.

Raising revenue is not a legitimate objective for such deployments. The objective of enforcing moving traffic contraventions should be to meet the traffic authority’s legal network management duty to secure the expeditious movement of traffic. That is, to secure the efficient use of the road network and the avoidance of congestion. Relevant governing legislation, such as the Traffic Management Act 2004, is not revenue raising legislation.

Reports of crimes involving motorcycles, mopeds and scooters are clearly a concern. The Government has been determined to ensure that everything was being done to support police efforts to tackle this threat. That is why we brought the police, industry, local government, civil society groups and others together to see what more could be done to prevent offending and keep the public safe.

This work sits alongside the Government’s consultation on police pursuits, which seeks to give police greater confidence to pursue suspects and will help tackle these crimes. The consultation closed on 13 August and we will set out the next steps shortly.

The Home Office does not hold the requested information centrally.

Statistics on theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle, which will include motorcycles, are regularly published by the Office for National Statistics. This can be found in Table A4 of the latest Crime in England and Wales publication.

Information on prosecutions is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. They have informed us that they do not hold the requested data.