Fear of having a bike stolen can be a serious deterrent to those who might want to take up cycling.

Active Travel England is providing funding for local authorities to introduce secure cycle parking. In addition, the British Transport Police are tackling cycle theft at rail stations by both uniformed patrols and use of plain clothes officers at hotspot locations.

On 10 December 2025, my Department announced that local authorities will receive £626 million for active travel between 2026/27 and 2029/30. This funding can be used to support any form of active travel scheme, including secure cycle parking.

I am aware that bike theft is a major problem and that the fear of having a bike stolen can act as a serious deterrent to those who might otherwise want to take up cycling. Active Travel England is providing funding for local authorities to introduce secure cycle parking. Ultimately, enforcement of offences concerning cycle theft and advice on preventative measures is a matter for the police.

The British Transport Police (BTP) Crime Screening Policy is an operational document owned by the BTP. Any decisions to publish the document are for BTP, as an operationally independent police service.

While police data records injury type as assessed by the attending officer, health data provides far richer clinical detail on injury patterns, severity, and longer-term outcomes. This includes standardised measures, allowing injuries to be classified consistently and compared across collisions, locations, road users and vehicle types. Linking health and police records will also identify collisions resulting in cyclist and e-bike injuries that never appear in police data, addressing known under-reporting.

For cyclists and e-bike users in particular, this enables new forms of analysis, including how injury severity varies by road type, collision circumstance, and vehicle involvement, as well as how outcomes differ between conventional cycles and e-bikes. This evidence will support more targeted and evidence-led interventions. Overall, the linked data underpins a shift toward evidence-led cycling policy based on real injury outcomes.

On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all. Roads aren’t just for motorists; it is vitally important that everyone using our roads is kept safe including cyclists and pedestrians.

The strategy builds upon ongoing work in this area. On 12 December 2025 we announced that we are allocating £626 million for local authorities from 2026-27 to 2029-30 to deliver walking, wheeling and cycling schemes, enough for 500 miles of new walking and cycling routes and 170,000 more active trips per day.

This is in addition to the almost £300 million funding for active travel in 2024/25 and 2025/26 which we announced in February 2025. This will help local authorities to provide high-quality and easily accessible active travel schemes across England and will enable more children to walk and cycle to school.

In November 2025 the Government launched a consultation to develop the third Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS3). The consultation sought the views of stakeholders on a national vision, statutory objectives and underlying performance indicators. The consultation closed on the 15th of December, and the Government is now considering the responses to the consultation with the final strategy to be published in the spring.

On 7 January 2026 we published our new Road Safety Strategy, setting out our vision for a safer future on our roads for all.

The Strategy sets an ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65% by 2035. Delivery of the Strategy will be supported and monitored by a new Road Safety Board chaired by the Minister for Local Transport. This will be supported by an Expert Advisory Panel, which will provide insight from those working directly with road users and communities.

The Board and Expert Advisory Panel are currently under development and decisions regarding membership and format will be made in due course.

Ensuring the railway remains safe for passengers and staff, and creating a hostile environment for criminals on the network is a priority for both the Department for Transport and the British Transport Police (BTP). Decisions on the use of resource and deployment of officers across the railway are for the BTP, as an operationally independent police service.

The BTP’s screening policy, introduced in August 2024, takes into account factors including the possible time window an incident could have taken place in, but also the availability of witnesses and CCTV, the realistic prospect of a successful outcome, and a range of other factors. In some instances this may mean that an investigation is not progressed, but there is no blanket ruling and each case is assessed individually. BTP have not taken the decision to stop investigating bike theft that cannot be narrowed to a two-hour window.

BTP work closely with train operating companies and their counterparts in Home Office forces to run events at stations across the network, which provide practical crime prevention advice and services such as free bike marking to passengers. There was a 23% decrease in cycle theft recorded between 2022/23 and 2024/25.

The British Transport Police (BTP) are operationally independent and how they deploy their resources across the network is for the Chief Constable to decide.

Criminal activity, including cycle theft, is not tolerated on the network and BTP are committed to keeping the railway safe for passengers and rail staff. The BTP crime screening policy, introduced in August 2024, does not automatically rule out crimes for investigation and the full circumstances of an incident are considered on an individual basis.

It is essential that members of the public and rail staff continue to report incidents to the BTP by texting 61016, or calling 999 in an emergency so that they can build their policing intelligence picture and refine their data led patrol plans across the entire rail network for officer deployments and identifies hotspots for targeted intervention.

The British Transport Police (BTP), like their Home Office force counterparts, are operationally independent and decisions on whether to release guidance are for the Chief Constable to make.

Crime figures for the BTP are collated by the Home Office and published on the Office for National Statistics website.

The Department is committed to working with the rail industry and the British Transport Police (BTP) to ensure that the railway remains a safe environment for passengers and rail staff.

BTP works in partnership with rail operators to make stations hostile environments for potential bike thieves with measures focused on cycle storage. The force frequently works with rail operators, local partners and Home Office police forces, to run public events that raise awareness of preventative measures passengers can take to deter criminals, and offer services such as offering free bike marking.

Currently the recording of e-bikes within STATS19 follows the relevant legislation, the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations 1983, with officers encouraged in the STATS19 guidance (known as STATS20) to use an accompanying free text field to provide further details where possible.

The Standing Committee on Road Injury Collision Statistics (SCRICS), which oversees the STATS19 collection, is currently reviewing the recording of vehicle and propulsion types within STATS19 with a view to providing better guidance to reporting police officers on the classification of e-bikes.

The department does not collect any information relating to either the number of food delivery cyclists or how many of them might have liability insurance.

I thank the Minister for her answer on the work the Government are doing with businesses to support people dealing with the consequences of the gig economy and road safety. Will she join with me in my work to ensure that the area around Baker Street is safer for residents, and will she work with me and residents around Baker Street to make the case to gig economy businesses that we need to do more on enforcement and on the regulation of these workers?

No assessment has been made of the potential merits of applying speed limits for motor vehicles to (a) pedal bicycles and (b) e-bikes.

Like all road users, people who cycle have a duty to behave in a safe and responsible manner and follow the rules of the road.

While speed limits set under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 only apply to motor vehicles, cyclists can still be charged with careless or dangerous cycling offences depending on the circumstances.

E-bikes that do not comply with the Electrically Pedal Assisted Cycles regulations, which include a requirement for power assist to cut off at 15.5 miles per hour, are classed as mechanically propelled vehicles. So, riders are already subject to speed limits while riding these bikes if power assist is being used. Riders may cycle faster than 15.5 miles per hour using pedal power.

Cyclists are in practice seldom able to exceed the speed limits that apply to motorised vehicles.

All manufacturers must demonstrate that their vehicles and equipment comply with international vehicle approval requirements before they are permitted to offer their products for sale, and these include detailed provisions for vehicle lighting. The approval requirements are complemented by the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 to ensure that vehicles operating on the roads of Great Britain continue to have effective and safe lighting systems whilst in service.

All vehicle lighting requirements, including the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989, are kept under review and amended as necessary to account for advances in vehicle lighting technologies and emerging evidence to ensure regulatory effectiveness is maintained.

Standards for the fitment and use of bicycle lights are set out in the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989 as amended.

Front and rear flashing lights are only permitted on bicycles provided they do not cause undue dazzle or discomfort to other road users, have a constant flashing frequency of 1 to 4 hertz and, if they are the only lights fitted, an intensity of not less than four candelas.

Enforcement of road traffic law is generally an operational matter for individual police forces and their officers can issue verbal warnings or fixed penalty notices, or report riders for formal prosecution.