My Lords, while this might not be the greatest issue confronting Parliament, it is actually quite an important little change. A couple of years ago I did some research into these bikes. Indeed, I have just sent a note to the Minister’s civil servants to check on a particular kind of vehicle which I thought might have fallen within this designation, but I understand that that is not the case because it does not have pedals. During the course of her speech, the Minister said that bikes without pedals might, at some stage in the future, be the subject of an amendment to the law. I think I heard that correctly.
The bikes I am referring to do not have pedals and do not exceed 15.5 miles per hour, so they cannot go very fast. They do not need an MOT, nor do people need a licence or insurance for them. People do not need to use a helmet at the moment or pay road tax. There is very little difference between these bikes and the electrically assisted bikes or mopeds that are covered by the order before the Committee. To what extent will genuine consideration be made of these more advanced vehicles without pedals?
I would imagine that nationally there are a lot of bikes being held in stock that fall under the old regulations. I have seen these bikes in Tesco, where they cost around £450. I presume that a number of retailers must be holding stocks under the old regulations. Were they consulted and did they express a view on whether the implementation of this regulation should be delayed?
5.45 pm
It would be good if at some stage in future these other bikes could be included. Why did I do a bit of research on them? I wanted one myself. It was interesting
to go around different companies to look at what products were available. I went to one depot that had a show room full of these bikes that exceeded the 40 kilogram limit, but they were the type that lacked pedals. They are out there for sale, though I presume that they have not been sold because they fall outside the regulations. I also presume that they are to be re-exported, because they cannot be sold in the United Kingdom. At some point in the future maybe Ministers might be more sympathetic. If we are governed here by European regulations and cannot exceed them I have no case, but I am interested to hear what the Minister has to say in reply.