Electric scooters have been blamed for a surge in the number of children being penalised for driving without insurance.
Since the start of 2020 almost 800 children aged between 13 and 16 have been given an IN10 endorsement – the code used by the police for “using a vehicle uninsured against third party risks” – according to data obtained by a road safety charity.
While in 2020 there were no recorded cases, by 2024 the number had risen to 375 a year.
E-scooters are in a legal limbo in the UK. They are illegal on pavements and other public land, and can be used on the road only with insurance, but it is not possible to buy cover for a privately owned one.
The IN10 endorsement is one of the key sanctions police have against e-scooters being illegally used, together with confiscating them, and the charity suggested that this was behind the leap in the numbers being given out to children.
The data, which came from a freedom of information request to the licensing agency DVLA, also showed that the number of drivers between 17 and 24 penalised for not having insurance jumped from 532 in 2020 to a peak of 20,026 in 2023, dropping back to 13,556 last year.
While e-scooters may have been involved in some of these cases, a sharp rise in the cost of insurance is likely to be to blame, the charity said.
Figures from Pearson Ham Group, which tracks insurance prices, show that premiums fell in 2024, but remained 21% higher than in 2020.
IAM RoadSmart said the number of children caught driving or riding without insurance was “shocking”.
Its director of policy and standards, Nicholas Lyes, said: “The government needs to urgently bring forward legislation on private e-scooters, which must include minimum [technical standards], speed limiters and proposals for riders to have a minimum level of competency.”
The charity called on the government to act to reduce insurance costs for young drivers by introducing a zero-rate of insurance premium tax (IPT) on policies where licence holders under the age of 25 have completed an “approved driving or riding course”, and to create a Young Drivers Taskforce within the Department for Transport (DfT).
A DfT spokesperson said: “We are carefully considering next steps on e-scooters, but in the meantime private ones remain illegal for use on public roads.
“We are committed to tackling high car insurance costs as part of our Plan for Change to raise living standards across Britain and that’s why we have set up a cross-government taskforce to look at how we can help stabilise or reduce premiums.”
