Chamber and committees

Criminal Justice Committee

Crime and antisocial behaviour associated with e-bikes and e-scooters

The Criminal Justice Committee is carrying out a short inquiry considering crime and antisocial behaviour associated with e-bikes and e-scooters.

The Committee will explore the causes of criminal and antisocial behaviour involving e-bikes and e-scooters, consider the Scottish Government’s work to date and identify measures to tackle the issue.

In recent years, Police Scotland have reported seizing a growing number of e-bikes and e-scooters which are being used illegally and continue to receive complaints from local communities. 

The Committee’s work will focus on four areas: causes, impact, enforcement and prevention.

The remit of this work is to:

consider the causes and impact of antisocial and criminal use of e-bikes and e-scooters
identify the enforcement measures required to make communities safer
consider what action could be taken to prevent criminal and antisocial behaviour involving e-bikes

The Committee will prioritise hearing from communities, people with lived experience and frontline workers through targeted engagement activities. This will provide the Committee with a meaningful understanding of the issues and direct evidence to inform its scrutiny and recommendations. 

Timetable

The Committee plans to undertake the following activities for its inquiry:

Mid-November

Formal evidence session with a focus on policing and prevention. The session will establish the scale and nature of the issue, explore the current legal and policy landscape, identify what powers police currently have and what is required to tackle the issue. It will also identify key areas for further scrutiny.
Engagement activity with young people, youth workers and community police officers. The sessions will cover the drivers of antisocial and criminal e-bike and e-scooter use, the impact on communities, and prevention and enforcement methods that could address illegal use.

Early December

Engagement activity with a community group and people with lived experience. The Committee will hear directly from a community that has been affected by antisocial and criminal e-bike and e-scooter use to understand its impact and explore prevention and enforcement methods that could address illegal use.

Mid-December

Evidence session with the Scottish Government. The Committee will use the evidence gathered from communities and frontline workers to scrutinise the Scottish Government’s plans to tackle antisocial and criminal e-bike and e-scooter use, put suggested methods for prevention and enforcement to the Scottish Government and explore whether adequate resources will be made available to address this issue.

Spring 2027 (subject to Committee agreement)

Publication of the Committee's report.

The timetable set out is an indication of the expected timescales for the Committee’s work. The timetable is subject to the Committee’s progress with the inquiry.