Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of making mandatory the use of side lights on motorcycles and mopeds with an engine capacity of 50cc or less.

The Department has made no assessment of the potential merits of making the use of side lights mandatory, but headlamps that operate automatically whenever the machine is ridden have been fitted to most new machines under a voluntary agreement with the European motorcycle manufacturing industry since 2003. Changes in the construction requirements for new machines came into force from January 2016, which include a mandatory requirement for such systems.