Mr. Michael Rowland:

We have made recommendations in respect of how e-scooters would be regulated and whether they would be regulated through local authorities or not. That is a decision the Minister will make based on our submission to him. Many of the proposals from the Department of Transport are based on the transport laboratory research we commissioned back in 2019.

This looked at what was happening elsewhere in Europe and the issues arising. We also consulted with our colleagues in Europe to see how they were dealing with those issues. That Transport Research Laboratories, TRL, report made a number of recommendations following which we made recommendations to the Minister at that time. These are reflected in the submission we made to the Department last week on how these scooters should be regulated, dealing with safety, speed, who can use them and where they can be used, and all that goes with the safe use of these vehicles. That is something we have considered with our international colleagues also.