Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Maguire Excerpts

Monday 26th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that alongside legislation, we need to ensure that we have the police in our communities and neighbourhoods to tackle crime. We have put 3,800 new police—extra police—in our neighbourhoods since we came to power. The collaboration between police and shop workers is having really good results in a lot of our town centres, and I encourage the Scottish National party Government to look at ensuring the same in Scotland.

[Helen Maguire (Epsom and Ewell) (LD)]

5. What plans she has to bring forward legislative proposals to support police to tackle the illegal use of e-bikes and e-scooters.

[The Minister for Policing and Crime (Sarah Jones)]

We all recognise the concern about the illegal use of e-bikes and e-scooters. We have taken action through the Crime and Policing Act 2026. Police no longer need to issue a warning before seizing vehicles that are being used antisocially. We have also reduced vehicle disposal timeframes to seven days, so we are taking action, but we are very much in the market for seeing what else we can do.

[Helen Maguire]

I welcome the new police powers to seize illegal e-scooters and e-bikes that, quite frankly, are out of control. In Epsom and Ewell, Operation Scramble seized 15 vehicles and made six arrests in two days, but some police are hesitant to engage in pursuits because of concerns for wider public safety. It is clear that the police cannot address this issue alone. With Christmas approaching, will the Minister commit to a national awareness campaign to ensure that the general public understand the law around e-scooters, and appreciate that they are legal only if they are part of a rental scheme or are being used on private land?

[Sarah Jones]

I thank the hon. Member for her thoughtful question. We hear what she says about e-bikes. We are having conversations with the College of Policing and others about how we can ensure that the police can respond in the way that they want to. In a big operation last month, the Met arrested 187 people and seized 157 vehicles in a crackdown on e-bikes, and Met police are using Sur-Ron bikes in that operation, so we are very much having conversations with colleagues to see what more we can do.