Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to improve access for (a) disabled and (b) all users of electric vehicle charging points.

As the transition to electric vehicles (EV) accelerates, it is important that public chargepoints are easily accessible to all those who need to use them, including disabled and elderly people. Working alongside the disability charity, Motability, the Government commissioned the British Standards Institution (BSI) to produce a new accessibility standard.

A world first of its kind, the Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 1899 was published on 11 October 2022, and lays out best practice on designing and installing accessible public EV chargepoints.

Compliance with PAS 1899 is voluntary. However, the Government is actively encouraging relevant parties to adopt its specifications, building on improvements already being made in the sector. Several local authorities receiving Local EV Infrastructure Pilot funding are already considering PAS 1899 and accessibility in their plans for chargepoint rollout.