The availability of insurance is determined on a case-by-case basis by insurers, but the Government engages with the industry on a regular basis through the Flood Resilience Taskforce.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, we consulted on a new NPPF, including proposals in a new standalone chapter dedicated to managing flood risk and coastal change. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

The Secretary of State has made no such assessment. The setting of premiums is a commercial decision for insurers, and the Government does not intervene or seek to control the market.

The Government published a consultation on motoring offences alongside the Road Safety Strategy on 7 January 2026. It is split into four sections, exploring drink and drug driving, non-seatbelt use, failure to stop and report, and introducing new penalties for certain offences and other road traffic matters, including whether the minimum penalties for driving without motor insurance should be increased.

Once the Motoring Offences Consultation concludes, we will confirm any changes to the policy on penalties for driving uninsured.

The timelines for bringing forward any changes, including those relating to uninsured driving, will then depend on legislative time.

My Lords, the Government have no plans to legislate for the registration or insurance of e-bikes or pedal bikes. This would be likely to put many people off cycling, with negative environmental and health benefits. However, it is illegal for private e-scooters to be used on public roads. The Government will consider both registration and insurance for e-scooters in any future legislation. I look forward to further exploring this important subject with the noble Baroness in our forthcoming meeting.

I feel that this is a rerun of the noble Baroness’s previous Question. She is right that the road network, including the pavement, should be safe for all varieties of road users, including all the people she mentions and pedestrians. It clearly is an issue, and I respect her view, and that of other noble Lords, that it is an issue. The previous Government started a rental trial in 2020 and announced primary legislation in May 2022 but failed to deliver it. This Government are giving serious consideration to these issues, including the issue of insurance, and I am sure that this subject will come back—probably weekly—until this legislation.

The Government regularly speak to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau and insurers as we develop our policy on e-scooters. This includes discussions about personal injury and property damage costs being covered by motorists, through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau’s uninsured drivers agreement, where an illegal e-scooter is at fault in a collision, ensuring that victims are fairly compensated. The e-scooters in the department’s rental trials, managed by the relevant local transport authorities, are covered by insurance.

The noble Baroness is rightly persistent on this subject and, as she knows, I have offered to meet her on it. The previous Government commenced trials but did not develop or introduce legislation. We recognise the depth of public concern and are actively considering next steps. In the meantime, the vast majority of MIB claims related to e-scooters are of less than £50,000, so are likely to be a small proportion of the £530 million that she mentioned.

The Government understands the need to resolve the longstanding question of regulating micromobility devices such as e-scooters. We are carefully considering next steps on this.

As part of policy development, we are working with local authorities and industry through our e-scooter trials to inform options for future regulation. Any option requiring users of private e-scooters to have insurance will require careful consideration. No decisions have been made on the future regulation of e-scooters and the Government will consult before any regulations come into force.

Clearly, it is really important that we work closely with our European neighbours. The incidences of avian flu are currently not what we have seen in previous years, but we must not be complacent. Working with our European neighbours to monitor outbreaks is absolutely critical, because wild birds fly very long distances so this is an international problem. Regarding the SPS agreements, all I can say is that we are making progress and continuing discussions with the EU.

Those who cycle on public roads are encouraged, but not required, to take out some form of insurance, and many cyclists have insurance cover through their membership of cycling organisations. Any change requiring cyclists to have insurance before cycling on the public highway would be likely to have unintended consequences such as putting many people off cycling. This would have adverse impacts on health and congestion.

It is illegal to use privately owned e-scooters on public roads, cycle lanes and pavements, and rental e-scooters can only be hired in e-scooter trials areas. The e-scooters used in the rental trials are covered by full motor vehicle insurance policies.

We have made no assessment of the impact on the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) of incidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters. However, pedal cycles and Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles (EAPCs) do not require insurance, so they have no impact on the MIB.

The Government regularly meets with the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to discuss issues around micromobility insurance.

I hear what the noble Baroness says. That is a pretty drastic approach, but she has made her point well.

As part of The Future of Transport Regulatory Review, the Department is reviewing regulations for micromobility vehicles, including e-scooters. Further conversations will be held as more evidence from e-scooter trials and wider sources is collected. These will feed into considerations for how best to regulate e-scooters, including whether to require insurance and, if so, what kind.

Users are required to scan their driving licence via the operator’s app in order to verify their eligibility to ride an e-scooter. In some cases this is done via facial-recognition technology where the user must scan their driving licence and then take a clear photo of themselves on the operator’s app. This allows the operator to verify that the user is using a valid driving licence and is at least 16 years old. Some operators use manual verification of driving licences before allowing users to rent an e-scooter.

Additionally, the police have powers to issue Fixed Penalty Notices of £100 and seize e-scooters, if an individual is found to be driving without a driving licence or is under the age of 16.

As part of its stakeholder engagement, the Department is in continuous contact with representatives of the motor insurance industry and as part of that, does discuss e-scooters to understand their views.

Ministers are currently considering options for how best to regulate e-scooters, including whether to require insurance and, if so, what kind.

The Department is running trials of rental e-scooters to assess their safety and wider impacts. Some 32 trials are underway and will run across the year, with final trial schemes due to conclude by 31 March 2022. The evidence gathered during the trials will inform whether e-scooters should be legalised in the future and how we can ensure their use is as safe as possible. Until we have that evidence, we do not want to speculate on the future legal status of e-scooters or on specific issues like insurance.

On 5 March 2020, the Government added COVID-19 to its list of notifiable diseases.

Insurers’ policies that cover notifiable diseases will typically only cover a specific subset of notifiable diseases (such as cholera or anthrax) that the insurer will reference in the policy documentation. These policies will exclude any notifiable disease not on the insurer’s list, as well as future/unknown diseases such as COVID-19. The price that the insurer charges for the policy is modelled against the risk posed by this set list of diseases.

Some businesses will have purchased add-ons for their insurance that cover for ‘unspecified notifiable diseases’. These policies effectively cover any disease listed as a notifiable disease, enabling the business to claim for losses for all notifiable diseases as well as from diseases that are unknown at the point the policy is written.

The effect of the Government adding COVID-19 to its list of notifiable diseases is to ensure that businesses with unspecified notifiable disease cover are able to make a claim – subject to the terms and conditions in their policy. For example, someone infected with COVID-19 may need to have been on the premises.

The Chancellor has made clear that, for those businesses which have an appropriate policy that covers pandemics, government’s medical advice of 16 March is sufficient to allow businesses to make a claim against their insurance, provided the other terms and conditions in their policy are met.

In addition, the FCA’s rules require insurers to handle claims fairly and promptly; provide reasonable guidance to help a policyholder make a claim, and appropriate information on its progress; not reject a claim unreasonably; and settle claims promptly once settlement terms are agreed.

However, most businesses have not purchased insurance that covers pandemic related losses. As such, any affected businesses should note the government’s full package of support.

The Government is in continual dialogue with the insurance sector about its contribution to handling this unprecedented situation.

My noble friend makes an excellent point and I will certainly do so. There is an attempt not just to recruit many more GPs into service but to recruit them into hard-to-reach areas, such as rural areas, through a targeted recruitment campaign. I am sure that that is one of the areas that we will want to look at.

My Lords, it would be fair to explain that £2.5 billion—a six-year capital flood programme allocated to DEFRA to 2021—is the route to protect more than 300,000 homes, 205 miles of railway and 340 miles of roads. This is the way that we will overwhelmingly ensure that more of not only our urban but our rural areas are better protected. Included in that programme will be £1.5 billion of benefits for agriculture. However, I will bear in mind what my noble friend said and will write to her.

My Lords, I declare my farming interests as set out in the register. There are no plans to extend Flood Re, because it is based on council tax bands and was specifically designed by the insurance industry for households at the highest flood risk. This would include farm-houses under a domestic policy. We are, however, working with the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, BIBA, which is launching a commercial product very shortly that provides flood insurance to businesses.