Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of police forces using e-scooters or e-bikes to tackle local anti-social behaviour and crime; and what guidance is provided to police forces on procuring tactical e-vehicles.

The deployment of operational tactics and equipment, including the use of e-bikes and e-scooters, is an operational matter for individual chief constables, who are best placed to assess local policing needs and respond to crime and anti-social behaviour in their communities.

The Home Office has not made a specific assessment of the effectiveness of police forces' use of e-bikes or e-scooters to tackle anti-social behaviour and crime. However, some forces have adopted e-bikes and other capabilities such as drones as part of their neighbourhood policing response and tactics to tackle anti-social behaviour to provide officers with greater mobility and access to areas that may be difficult to patrol using conventional police vehicles.

The Government has strengthened police powers to tackle the anti-social use of vehicles. Section 8 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, removed the requirement for the police to issue a warning before they can seize a vehicle being used anti-socially. The Government also reduced vehicle disposal timeframes to seven days in July 2026, helping to reduce the time offenders can reclaim vehicles and continue to cause nuisance.

Responsibility for the procurement of operational vehicles and equipment rests with individual police forces. The Home Office does not issue specific guidance on the procurement of tactical e-vehicles. Forces are expected to ensure that any procurement activity complies with relevant legislation, national procurement frameworks and local governance arrangements.