
Transport is an evolving environment. With technological development, as well as incentives from other policy areas, mobility choice is changing. Smaller, zero-emissions vehicles, such as e-scooters are proving popular. Public, regulated trials of e-scooters were launched across England in July 2020 with local authorities seeking to provide a safe, low-carbon mobility option. Privately owned e-scooters are currently illegal to use on our roads and in other public spaces, however, the private fleet in the UK far exceeds that of the rental schemes.
With PACTS vision for a transport network which is safe, we were at the front of the curve, working to understand the potential safety impact of e-scooters on riders and other road users. Funded by The Road Safety Trust, PACTS conducted a number of research projects through 2020-2024. This has led to continuing engagement with Ministers and Parliamentarians. PACTS advises on making the most of the rental trials, extended until May 2026, to improve and widen the way injuries from e-scooter collisions are recorded as well as promoting our recommendations for future legislation for e-scooter safety. We also publish current evidence and hold a register of fatalities involving e-scooters in the UK since 2019.
PACTS publications
When the government-approved e-scooter rental trials were opened July 2020 the intention was that they would be a means to assess the safety of e-scooters. However, it was evident to PACTS that there is little measure of the impact of the safety of private e-scooter on riders and other road users. PACTS has carried out research, funded by The Road Safety Trust, to understand more about the safety of e-scooters and the number of casualties injured in collisions involving e-scooters.
Date |
Report |
Details |
January 2024 | Comparing police and hospital e-scooter casualty datasets | In drawing together casualty figures to support a October 2021 report PACTS made links with medical professionals working in emergency departments across the UK. Building on those links PACTS reported, in January 2024, on the extent of under-reporting of e-scooter casualties. This was based on matches being found between data of 300 casualties recorded by hospitals across the UK, police records and the rental trials over two months in late 2021. Findings showed that fewer than 10% of casualties with any level of injury from a collision involving an e-scooter presenting to emergency departments were recorded in the official data. The report was promoted in a a roundtable event hosted by Barry Sheerman, where professionals representing a range of backgrounds, medical professionals, data analysists, the police, voiced their concerns. Notably that private e-scooters are cheap and readily available. Some are marketed at children as toys, resulting in a disproportionate number of children being injured while using a motor vehicle. The roundtable briefing paper records how, strategically, the most important thing to achieve is a legislative framework. |
March 2022 | The safety of private e-scooters in the UK – PACTS research | Presents findings of casualties, from the UK and Europe, as well as technical understanding of how the vehicles work. The report was launched with a webinar and updated with a Europe perspective in February 2023 in a joint publication with ETSC. |
October 2021 | The safety of private e-scooters’ – Interim report from PACTS |
PACTS recommendations
PACTS recommendations span the construction and use of e-scooters as well as collection of casualty data, both for riders and other road users. As the responsibility for improving transport safety is far reaching, achieving these recommendations will require cross-departmental working, including the Department for Transport, Department for Health and Social Care and Home Office.
To address safety concerns around e-scooter use, one of an increasing array of various forms of micromobility, PACTS recommends:
the Government should take immediate action to address dangerous and illegal private e-scooter use:

- issue clear information to the public that it is illegal to use a private e-scooter on public roads and in almost all public places in the UK, and that they could incur substantial fines and penalties if caught;
- take action against retailers which fail to properly inform customers of the risks and illegality involved in the use of private e-scooters, and
- support the police in taking enforcement action against illegal and unsafe use proceed with 2022 proposals and create a new low-speed zero-emissions vehicle category with regulations for use and construction (see image for recommendations):
the DfT should improve the means of recording e-scooter casualties using the rental e-scooter schemes:
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- update guidance to operators and local authorities about the use of situation reports so data collection more closely aligns with STATS19, for example matching the options for persons involved in the collision on the situation report with the casualty class in STATS19
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- publish findings from the situation reports which have been collected since July 2020
- prioritise harmonisation of casualty recording across local authorities in future legislation to enable consistent measuring of safety outcomes for riders and other road users
the DfT should increase the opportunities for casualty data to be collected by:
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- issuing clear information to the public about the obligations of reporting road traffic collisions to the police, including those involving illegally used private e-scooters on public roads and public places
- working with the Home Office as it prioritises roads policing through the implementation of the Strategic Policing Requirement including dissemination of the value gained from road traffic casualty data collection
- working with the Department for Health and Social Care to extend coding which is relevant to road traffic casualties from STATS19 to hospital record systems, for example, the Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS), therefore bringing consistency between datasets
- supporting the greater use and development of the CRaSH digital recording system with its responsiveness to new transport modes and ready means of reporting casualty data.
PACTS Engagement with Parliamentarians
PACTS has promoted its recommendations to Parliamentarians through letters and responding to calls for evidence and consultations. Parliamentarians have also called for PACTS expertise in one-to-one meetings and roundtable events. The two debates on e-scooters held in the Houses of Parliament have referenced PACTS reports and recommendations.
Alongside PACTS research focusing on private e-scooters its correspondence with Parliamentarians has included the Government backed rental trials. These schemes are an opportunity to carry out a detailed study of e-scooter use. Following the publication, in, December 2022, of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) evaluation report of the e-scooter trial rental schemes PACTS has raised questions relating to safety as more could be learnt. When trials were extended yet another time, in November 2023 until May 2026 PACTS wrote to and then met with the Minister in early 2024. The expectation is that another evaluation will be carried out in 2024. With the appropriate data being collected there is the potential to make well-informed decisions on future legislation.
PACTS has engaged with Parliamentarians as follows:
Date |
Engagement |
Details |
13/10/2024 | Roundtable | Joined representatives from the police, fire service, local transport authorities and charities at a roundtable hosted by the Minister Simon Lightwood MP. |
22/05/2024 | Westminster Debate | A Westminster Debate addresses e-scooter deaths and serious injuries, and the ongoing use of illegal, unregulated e-scooters with PACTS recommendations specifically referred to. |
30/04/2024 | Roundtable | PACTS President, Barry Sheerman, hosted a roundtable event where professionals representing a range of backgrounds, medical professionals, data analysists, the police, voiced their concerns and made their cases for e-scooter legislation clear. The roundtable briefing paper records how, strategically, the most important thing to achieve is a legislative framework. |
27/04/2023 | Letter | Letter from the Minister to PACTS in response to comments on the e-scooter rental trials evaluation report – Minister confirms consultation about e-scooter regulations will be held |
28/03/2023 | Letter | Letter to the Minister with PACTS comments on the e-scooter rental trials evaluation report – What have we learnt from the e-scooter trials? – PACTS |
08/03/2023 | Oral Evidence | PACTS submits oral evidence to Transport Select Committee on E-scooters: Follow-up Inquiry – PACTS |
21/02/2023 | Written Evidence | PACTS written evidence to the Transport Select Committee on e-scooters |
08/12/2022 | Report mentioned | PACTS report mentioned by Jessica Morden MP in debate with Jesse Norman MP and Minister – E-scooters: Antisocial Use – Hansard – UK Parliament |
13/12/2021 | Letter | Letter from the Minister to PACTS in response to recommendations – Minister welcomes PACTS contribution to the evidence on e-scooter use |
06/12/2021 | Letter | Letter to the Minister with PACTS recommendations – Recommendations for the construction and use of private e-scooters |
02/09/2020 | Ministerial Correspondence | Ministerial Correspondence to PACTS on e-scooter mis-selling |
21/08/2020 | Letter | PACTS letter to Rachel MacLean on e-scooters sales.pdf |

Since 2019, PACTS is aware of a total of forty-seven deaths involving e-scooters, one in 2019, three in 2020, thirteen in 2021, fourteen in 2022, six in 2023, eight in 2024 and two in 2025 (to beginning of February). A register is available here (latest edition 4 February 2025). The youngest person who has died was a nine-year-old rider, the oldest rider was 74. Trial rental e-scooters have been involved in four incidents where someone has died, one relating to a 75-year-old moving a parked rental e-scooter. Twenty-two riders have died in single-vehicle collisions and one pedestrian has died having been struck by someone who was riding an e-scooter.
Following some of these deaths coroners have published prevention of future deaths reports. These have included matters of concern about how private e-scooters are sold, the ease that children could access rental e-scooters and that helmets are mandatory for riders.
The DfT record e-scooter casualties as part of their reported road casualty data including the publication of e-scooter factsheets.
Data of fatalities is also collected across Europe and, in 2024, PACTS contributed to a report published by the European Transport Safety Council Improving the Road Safety of E-scooters (PIN Flash 47) – ETSC.