‘No plans’ to introduce registration plates for cyclists, says Grant Shapps

19 August 2022, 08:43

There are ‘no plans’ to introduce registration plates for cyclists, Grant Shapps has told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast.

It was reported on Wednesday that the government was considering plans to introduce number plates for bikes after Mr Shapps told the Daily Mail he wanted to crack down on cyclists breaking rules.

He told the paper that “obviously does then lead you into the question of: Well, how are you going to recognise the cyclist? Do you need registration plates and insurance?”.

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But in November 2018 the transport department said there were no plans to introduce any kind of registration regime for cyclists, something Nick put to Mr Shapps on Friday.

“Which is it, secretary of state?” He asked.

“No no no, no plans to introduce registration plates,” Mr Shapps said.

“The wider point that I was making, though, is that it’s got to be right to ensure that everybody who uses our roads does so responsibly.”

He said he was trying to address the difficulties in holding cyclists to account when they break the rules.

“What I was actually talking about at the time was cyclists who perhaps bust through red lights, we see that an awful lot,” he said.

“There is no way to prosecute a [cyclist] who might run into somebody else, and sometimes you get these very sad cases of death by dangerous cycling, and we are proposing to bring in death by dangerous cycling as a specific offence, along with other changes to car drivers and for other users of the road as well.

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“So this is not a plan which is – as I think has been suggested – somehow going after cyclists.”

He went on to say the UK is “not going to have registration plates and the like” but admitted the question asked would be “if you’re going to stop people going through red lights how do you know who it was?”.

“The law itself is not sufficient at the moment so you end up with relying on horse and coach legislation to prosecute cyclists,” he said.

“That, of course, makes no sense.”