Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of pollution and flooding resulting from the dumping of electric hire-scheme bikes in canals and rivers, as reported by the Canal and River Trust.

As announced in December’s English Devolution White Paper, the Government will legislate to empower local leaders to regulate hire bike schemes. These powers will enable local authorities to better identify and tackle issues arising from schemes, such as antisocial behaviour.

Dumped e-bikes are an eyesore and nuisance however they represent a very low pollution risk overall to river water quality. This is because the amount of pollution that could come from them is extremely small when considering overall dilution by the river. However, they should be removed as soon as possible to minimise any risk from degradation of batteries etc, which over time could release low levels of pollution.

The EA use their permissive powers to carry out routine maintenance on some designated main rivers, which includes obstruction removal.