My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 12, which seeks to give TfL some help and guidance. In my opinion, it does not contradict Amendment 9 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley; in fact, it complements it. In any event, that amendment suggests that “regard” should be had to his suggestions, whereas mine would require the reference to the Licensing Act to be incorporated into deliberations.
I have had to table the amendment because the licensing authority, TfL, is not covered by the Licensing Act, which is of course mainly to do with food and drink. For the benefit of those of your Lordships who do not recall them instantly, let me outline the licensing objectives in the Licensing Act 2003. They are very simple; there are just four of them: the prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; the prevention of public nuisance; and the protection of children from harm. I can see no reason why one would not want to include them in this Bill to give TfL guidance on what we want it to do.
I declare an interest in the stand part notice proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: I am regular user of dockless e-bikes. I used one this morning, and they have definitely changed their modus operandi. One cannot leave a bike anywhere on the street; in most, not all, of Westminster, they have to be in designated areas. That seems a sensible move. I cannot quite see how we can get e-scooters and e-bikes into this Bill, but I suspect that this might just be a probing debate.
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We may be able to put more pressure on the e-bike community. This is very easy to control because, at the moment, if you leave an e-bike outside the designated area, it will not allow you to end the trip. I do not know if any noble Lord has tried that; the first time is very frustrating but, once you get the hang of it, it is
fine. If you cannot end your trip, you run the risk of someone jumping on your e-bike at your expense and cycling all round London, which would not be satisfactory. That was a slight digression.
On this group, I want to talk about Amendment 47 tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, to which he did not refer in his speech. It requires a consultation on the safety of power-assisted pedicabs. This is extremely sensible. The idea of pedicabs being power assisted is pretty frightening. They go at a fair speed at the moment but, power assisted, they could easily go at 20 miles an hour, if not more if not restricted. Then they will become even more dangerous than they are now. I strongly support his very mild suggestion—it could have been a lot stronger.