Jesse Norman, whose responsibilities include as Minister of State at the Department for Transport (DfT) include active travel, has confirmed that the government has no plans for cyclists to be subject to compulsory registration. The specific question to which he was replying, however, does perhaps reflect widespread public misunderstanding on what constitutes an electric bicycle.

Norman confirmed the government’s stance on the subject in a reply to a written question from Jim Shannon, Member of Parliament for Strangford and the DUP’s shadow spokesman for human rights.

Shannon had asked (link is external) whether the Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper, had “made a recent assessment of the potential merits of requiring electric bike users to (a) have a number plate and (b) be insured.”

In his reply, Norman, who is in his second stint at the DfT – he was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State there in 2017-18, and took up his current appointment 12 months ago – said: “The Department considered issues including a mandatory registration and insurance system for cyclists as part of a cycling and walking safety review in 2018.

“The review concluded that restricting people’s ability to cycle in this way would mean that many would choose other modes of transport instead, with negative impacts for congestion, pollution and health,” he added.

Calls for cyclists to be licensed and insured are regularly made by people who perceive those riding bikes as a menace on the roads, and are equally regularly rebuffed by the government.

In December 2021, the government rejected calls by motoring lawyer Nick Freeman to display identification – his suggestion was hi-viz tabards bearing a registration number – after a petition he launched on the subject and plugged for several months in newspaper articles and on TV appearances gained 10,000 signatures.

Replying to the petition, as it was obliged to do once that threshold was passed, the government said that it “considers that the costs of a formal registration system for cycle ownership would outweigh the benefits.

“The safety case for such a system is not as strong as that for drivers since, by contrast with motorised vehicles, cycles involved in collisions on the highway are highly unlikely to cause serious injury to other road users.”

The rejection of the suggestion that cyclists should be registered, due to the hassle and cost of running such a scheme, is based on real-life precedent, with jurisdictions around the world that have implemented such measures quickly scrapping them afterwards.

As for insurance, most adult cyclists will be covered for third party liability while riding a bike, whether through membership of organisations such as British Cycling and its affiliated clubs, or Cycling UK, or in most cases under their household contents cover.

The latter specifically exclude liability while using mechanically propelled vehicles such as private cars, where it is of course a legal requirement to have at minimum third party cover – something that does not prevent an estimated 1 million drivers from going uninsured –introduced in 1930 in response to the danger motorists posed to others, and gave rise to the motor insurance industry, valued at £19 billion in the UK.

By extension, the assumption by many that cyclists are not insured for their legal liability to others is based on the fact that drivers must take out specific insurance, while there is no such requirement for anyone riding a bike who, as explained above, will typically be covered elsewhere.

It is also worth noting that while Norman’s reply related to all cyclists, Shannon’s question specifically referenced “electric bike users,” an area in which there is widespread public misunderstanding of the law.

To legally qualify as an “electric bike” – or to give its legal definition, an “electrically assisted pedal cycle” (EAPC), it must meet certain requirements, as set out by the government here (link is external).

Anyone aged 14 or over can ride an electric bike, without needing a licence, registration or insurance, provided that it complies with those requirements including that I has pedals that can be used to propel it, has a maximum power output of 250 watts, and the motor cannot power the bike at speeds above 15.5mph.

“Any electric bike that does not meet the EAPC rules is classed as a motorcycle or moped and needs to be registered and taxed.” The government says, advising users that they must have a driving licence to ride one, and also wear a crash helmet.”

Those definitions are in line with regulations initially drawn up by the European Union, and despite Brexit, remain in force in the UK with no suggestion they will be amended any time soon, and it is worth noting that the European Court of Justice recently confirmed in a landmark ruling that e-bikes meeting those requirements “are bicycles, instead of motorbikes.”

Now, your average person in the street, let alone Member of Parliament, is likely to be unaware of such distinctions, giving rise to confusion on the issue.

Partly driven by the growth of food delivery services in recent years, you don’t have to spend too long on a street in a UK town or city before you will see someone riding what to most people would look like a bicycle – distinct from a motorcycle in that there is no registration plate, and the rider may be wearing a cycle helmet, or be bareheaded – at unassisted speeds well above the 15.5mph stated above.

Aftermarket motors may well exceed the permitted 250 watts, and in some cases such bikes need no pedalling at all from the rider to achieve speeds of 30mph or more; quite rightly, such vehicles which as explained above fall under the definition of moped or motorcycle rather than electric bicycle need to be subject to tighter regulations, as well as being type approved – but it is understandable why most people, who are unfamiliar with the minutiae of the law on the subject, think of them as “bikes.”

Police forces across the country do periodically run enforcement campaigns on the issue – the Metropolitan Police’s Cycle Safety Team did so just last month, resulting in a number of illegal vehicles being seized.

https://road.cc/content/news/minister-no-plans-cyclists-be-registered-and-insured-304705