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Licence plates, tests and insurance – these are just some of the hoops e-scooter riders might face in the future to target ‘lawless’ use.

Ministers are working on plans to regulate e-scooters in the UK after concerns over their use in crime and safety issues.

Work is underway for tougher measures to crackdown on privately owned scooters following a spate of crashes and a rise in e-scooter-related crime.

Measures could include licencing, tests, insurance, and a minimum age requirement, Metro understands.

Ministers are also contemplating setting the maximum e-scooter speed limit at 12.5mph.

Private electric scooters are banned on public roads, but they are a common sight across London and the UK.

Figures from the police show that e-scooters were involved in over 20,000 crimes over three years leading up to 2024, including drug crime and robberies.

E-scooters have been illegally modified to go faster than they are designed to. A modified scooter capable of going at 62mph was caught in Merseyside last week.

People have been seriously injured when e-scooter riders have knocked them over, and campaigners have said that unregulated e-scooters are a risk to blind and disabled people.

Raquel Delgado-Calos, a veterinary surgeon, suffered a fractured skull when scooter rider Joseph Pedelty jumped a red light and mowed her down in Portsmouth last year.

In 2022, grandmother Linda Davis, 71, died five days after being hit by an e-scooter in Nottinghamshire during a walk, ridden by a 14-year-old boy.

The planned legislation would target owned scooters, so not those rented through an app.

A government source told Metro: ‘We will be consulting on the measures. At the moment, e-scooters are unregulated outside the trials, and it is a bit silly that we cannot legislate them.

Possible e-scooter measures

The government is looking into a selection of options, but a source told Metro these are just alternatives and not all of them are likely to happen.

Some of the options are:

• Licence plates for riders
• Requirement to pass mandatory rider training similar to a driving test
• Mandatory insurance, which is unlikely because of the cost of premiums
• Manufacturers to set the speed limit to 12.5mph
• Minimum age requirement of 14

‘We are looking at a spectrum of possibilities, but not all of those are likely to happen.’

The consultation, which could be rolled in early next year, is about ‘safety, but also the way they are used in crime, and that we have an increasing private market of scooters that is unregulated. E-scooters are not limited in terms of speed or weight.’

As a first step, e-scooters need to be made legal so that they can be treated like mopeds, roads lawyer Nick Freeman, known as Mr Loophole, told Metro.

He said: ‘There are around a million private e-scooters on our roads at the moment.

‘It is quite clear that they are very prevalent, very convenient and environmentally friendly, and they do need to be legislated for.

‘It is a bit like turning your blind eye on cannabis use – it is going on obviously, but we need legislation in place to manage the problem rather than pretending they are not there.

‘We need urgently to tackle the problem of lawless possession and lawless use, and it should be done without delay.

‘If we have relevant legislation in place, it will make e-scooters safer for users, pedestrians and other road users.

‘E-scooters do have their place on our roads, I can see the benefits of them, although I would rather have people cycling. The advantage of a cycle is that it is good for your health. With an e-scooter, you are getting fresh air in our congested cities, but at least you’re out of a car, which is good.’

‘What I’m hoping the legislation introduces as a starting point is some form of identification plate similar to a motor vehicle.’

He warned that without a form of identification and ways to trace the users the new legislation will be ‘impotent.’

E-scooters are already governed under the Road Traffic Act 1988, so there is already legislation in place ‘to deal with people who are using them,’ Mr Freeman said.

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Train experts have said that plans for a direct route between the UK and Germany should be taken with ‘a pinch of salt’.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz yesterday signed an agreement which aims to create direct train services between London and Berlin.

The Kensington treaty, which also included e-gates for frequent travellers, school exchange programmes and defence, aims to begin services within the next decade.

A joint task force has been set up to smooth barriers that block direct train travel, including border control, commercial and technical issues, as trains and tracks can be different between the countries.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said UK passengers could be able to visit iconic Berlin sights directly by rail ‘in just a matter of years.’

She said: ‘This landmark agreement – part of a new treaty the Prime Minister will sign with Chancellor Merz today – has the potential to fundamentally change how millions of people travel between our two countries, offering a faster, more convenient and significantly greener alternative to flying.’

Other possible routes include Frankfurt, Cologne and Geneva.

However, an expert in European rail travel, Mark Smith, who runs the popular Man in Seat 61 website, said a direct link between London and Berlin is unlikely.

‘If you’re running several trains a day from Frankfurt or Cologne, you can probably justify that. One train a day to Berlin that would take all day, you probably can’t justify that either,’ Mark told Metro.

‘I think it is unlikely that an operator will find a commercial way to run a train all the way to and from Berlin with full customs, border control and passport checks located in Berlin.

‘As distance increases, the track access costs rise, the number of journeys you get out of the rolling stop dramatically reduces – to Berlin, you are basically going to get one journey a day out of a very expensive piece of kit.

‘And yet, the money you can get from London to Berlin isn’t that much greater than London to Brussels because a one-directional flight, which you’re competing with, is about the same cost.’

A journey between the capitals would only be possible if the government poured money into subsidising the route or it was taken over by an operator with enough train stock, he said.

Due to platform and rolling stock limitations, there might only be one train a day, but there would still have to be border checks and separated facilities at stations as the UK is outside the Schengen zone.

But Mark did say people appear to be eager for more train routes after a new eight-hour train from Paris to Berlin launched in December, which is ‘heavily booked.’

‘This is because people are fed up with air travel in airports, and they want to travel more sustainably,’ he said. ‘But that Paris to Berlin train doesn’t need border controls.

‘There is demand for longer-distance travel, but it is difficult to serve commercially from the UK with all the border controls.

‘I give credence to a train to Cologne and Frankfurt. Eurostar have actually said they want to run to Frankfurt and Geneva, and the run to Frankfurt goes via Cologne.

‘It’s not going to be easy to find secure platform space at Frankfurt and Geneva, but Cologne is going to be a real problem, and they haven’t got a solution for that yet.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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Journeys on the major road will take longer than usual during the works.

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Airports across the UK have hiked up their kiss-and-fly fees, with drivers facing soaring prices ahead of the summer holidays.

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Passengers at facing delays at Paddington station after a fire alarm was sounded just before 7am.

Great W…

Tag, you’re it.

Passengers stuck on the train asked the rail company to open the doors as temperatures rose following the collision.

Passengers stuck on the train asked the rail company to open the doors as temperatures rose following the collision.

The road closure is causing severe delays, with traffic trapped at a road closure.