Mr. Duncan Robertson:

It is a great question and it is clearly a significant issue. I work predominantly work in the UK and we are seeing a similar issue with private scooters currently being illegal and the British Government is in a similar position in trying to work out what to do. One of the key things to note is that the standard of shared e-scooters is incredibly high and we are able to do maintenance to ensure the vehicles are safe and keep an eye on how batteries are acting. All these actions are part of a suite that makes shared scooters so good. We should ensure that some of those elements come across into private scooters, including making sure a top speed and maximum weight is legislated for. Good quality lighting must also be assured so that vehicles and people can be seen.

The other advantage of introducing shared scooters is in the training schemes we can offer on the street or in the app. That is online, as well as going into schools and bringing people to our warehouses and educating them that way. A person may be on a shared scooter but the education transfers to private scooters as well. We would bring an element of formalised training to a much wider audience.

The Deputy mentioned enforcement.

In terms of enforcement we have seen in the UK that police enforcement is useful initially to make sure the rules are understood by the general public, and that it usually tapers off. That is probably the best way to do it without consuming too much resource.