New government rules to track e-bike and e-scooter fires after deadly surge
Fire crews across England will now be required to record incidents involving e-bike and e-scooter batteries, the government has announced.
Fire Minister Samantha Dixon said the existing data platform will be updated to include a dedicated section for lithium-ion batteries and will also cover other electric vehicles.
The move comes at a time when safety concerns are rising about lithium-ion power supplies, which can spread rapidly and emit toxic fumes, and the resulting fires are on the rise.
Lesley Rudd, chief executive of Electrical Safety First, welcomed the move.
He said “substandard” e-bikes and e-scooters were “flooding the market”, making it “imperative” for fires involving them to be recorded.
“For years, the fire reporting system has desperately needed modernisation, so we are encouraged to see that the Government will now tackle battery fires, which will allow us to better understand the extent of the problem,” he said.
The urgency of the situation was further highlighted in 2025 when 30-year-old Eden Abera Siem died following a fire, possibly caused by a charging e-bike battery at her north London home.
A recent study found a significant increase in such incidents, with e-bike and e-scooter fires reaching new levels in 2025, reaching 432 and 147 respectively, according to data from 37 of 49 fire brigades in the UK.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden, Ms Dixon said the Fire and Rescue Data Platform, launched last November, would be enhanced to detect “whether the source of ignition was a battery and, where relevant, whether that battery was charging at the time of the incident”.
He added: “These additions will ensure such information is collected and reported consistently across services.”
However, Mr Holden expressed concerns about the current data gap.
“Battery fires can be more complex for emergency services to deal with, so the fact that the system does not currently properly record whether vehicle fires involve batteries means policy is being shaped by part of the picture rather than the whole picture,” he said.
“Therefore, if we are to have a serious discussion about vehicle safety, it needs to be based on real data, not specially selected analysis.”
