Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of charging tax on (a) scooters and (b) other smaller petrol motor vehicles.

Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on mechanically propelled vehicles kept or used on public roads. This includes petrol cars and motorcycles.

Rates for cars can vary based on date of first registration, engine size and emissions. Rates for motorcycles can vary based on engine size. For the purposes of VED, a motorcycle is defined as a motorbicycle or motortricycle that does not exceed 450kg unladen and therefore includes some vehicles that are commonly referred to as ‘scooters’.

Currently petrol cars, first registered between March 2001 and March 2017 and with emissions of less than 100g/km CO2 as well as all electrically propelled vehicles are exempt from VED.

At Autumn Statement 2022 the Chancellor announced that from 1 April 2025 all electric cars, vans and motorcycles would pay VED in the same way as petrol and diesel equivalents. This will mean that all cars, vans and motorcycles will pay VED unless otherwise exempt.

As with all taxes, VED is kept under review and any changes are considered and announced by the Chancellor.