- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any reports from Aberdeen regarding collisions or incidents involving illegal e-bikes, and, if so, what follow-up action was taken.
Answer
This information is not collected by the Scottish Government but The Scottish Government’s Community Safety Policy team has recently received one piece of correspondence concerning a collision involving an e-bike in the Aberdeen area.
Officials are working collaboratively with the UK Government to understand potential legislative change in this area.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the types of modifications commonly made to e-bikes that render them illegal, including the use of high-powered motors and throttle systems.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. I have asked Police Scotland to write to you on this matter.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been charged in connection with the use of illegal e-bikes in Aberdeen in each of the last five years.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. I have asked Police Scotland to write to you on this matter.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it last reviewed the £40,000 threshold for the additional dwelling supplement.
Answer
No review has been undertaken of the threshold for the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) threshold since its introduction. The setting of the threshold for the ADS reflects that The Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act 2013 provides that land transactions with a chargeable consideration of less than £40,000 are not notifiable and that no tax return is thus required.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what resources are available to Police Scotland in Aberdeen for monitoring and addressing the reported issue of illegal e-bikes.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s 2024-25 budget includes record police funding of £1.55 billion, which is an increase of £92.7 million on the 2023-24 Scottish Police Authority budget.
Official statistics show there were 16,427 FTE police officers at 30 September 2024. On 30 October the Chief Constable told the Criminal Justice Committee that she expected to reach the target of 16,600 officers soon - and this happened on 4 November.
Deployment of these resources to meet policing priorities is an operational matter for Police Scotland, under the scrutiny of the Scottish Police Authority.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what data it holds on the severity of injuries caused by illegal e-bike collisions compared with those involving regular bicycles.
Answer
Data on collisions which cause injury and take place on the road network, including adjacent pavements and cycle lanes, is collected by Police Scotland as part of the GB-wide dataset known as STATS19.
Within STATS19, vehicles involved in injury road collisions can be recorded as ‘bicycle’ or ‘electric motorcycle’. However, there is currently no systematic way of determining which of these vehicles would be described as illegal e-bikes.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many incidents involving illegal e-bikes have been reported in Aberdeen in each of the last three years.
Answer
Data on collisions which cause injury and take place on the road network, including adjacent pavements and cycle lanes, is collected by Police Scotland as part of the GB-wide dataset known as STATS19.
Within STATS19, vehicles involved in injury road collisions can be recorded as ‘bicycle’ or ‘electric motorcycle’. However, there is currently no systematic way of determining which of these vehicles would be described as illegal e-bikes.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many retailers or importers in Scotland have been found to be selling e-bikes that are not compliant with UK regulations, in each of the last five years.
Answer
This information is not held by the Scottish Government. When local authority trading standards services find products that are non-compliant with the relevant product safety legislation this should be input into the Product Safety Database. This is operated by the UK Government’s Office of Product Safety and Standards.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what protocols are in place to (a) respond to incidents involving illegal e-bikes and (b) support the victims of any such incidents.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Police Scotland. I have asked Police Scotland to write to you on this matter.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 December 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Angela Constance on 10 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it has on the effectiveness of current e-bike regulations in reducing the prevalence of illegal modifications.
Answer
Legislation surrounding the use of e-bikes and regulatory standards is a reserved matter for the UK Government. For an e-bike to be legal for use in the UK, they must meet the criteria of an electrically assisted pedal cycle and the electric motor should not be able to propel the bike when it’s travelling more than 15.5mph, with a maximum power output of 250 watts. This ensures speeds similar to that of other bicycles.
Ebikes that are modified to exceed speed and power limits are classify under motorcycle legislation. Police Scotland are responsible for taking action against those who ride illegal ebikes. Between January 2024 and Sept 2024 Police Scotland seized 281 illegally modified ebikes.
Members of the public who are seeking clarity on the standards required to ride on public roads should visit