Bolt Burdon Kemp strengthen their credentials on transport safety during National Road Victim Month
On Wednesday 6th July 2022, Bolt Burdon Kemp hosted a multi-stakeholder event titled “The Future of E-scooter Regulation”. Facilitated by Josh Hughes, the event was attended by several major guest speakers including the MIB, the Met Police, specialist lawyers and insurance bodies – all of whom were invited to share their respective concerns and perspectives upon how government should regulate private e-scooters, as and when they are legalised for public use.
The aim of the event was to gather key policy influencers into one place so that the public, and ultimately legislators, could hear from those outside of their own echo chambers on what is an incredibly divisive topic.
One of the most influential guest contributors was Margaret Winchcomb of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety or “PACTS”. PACTS is a charity whose objective is to “protect human life through the promotion of transport safety for the public benefit”. This is done in large part by the charity working closely with MPs, providing evidence to Select and Bill Committees and promoting transport safety by holding their own stakeholder conferences and events.
Prior to the e-scooter event, PACTS had been awarded a grant by the Road Safety Trust to collect data relating to incidents involving micro-mobility devices and to form recommendations for their construction and use. Subsequently, PACTS published their report comprising their findings and recommendations for the regulation of private e-scooters, as well as how their construction and use can be done with safety as the overriding priority. The recommendations can be found here.
Charitable partnership
At the event an obvious synergy emerged between Bolt Burdon Kemp and PACTS; their shared views on prioritising safety and minimising the risk of injury to road users when building the legal and regulatory framework around private e-scooters was clear.
Even beyond e-scooters, Bolt Burdon Kemp consider their primary role as serious personal injury lawyers extends beyond acting for those who have sustained life-changing injuries recover compensation. We recognise not all victims of injury will be in a position to bring a claim and so the firm is committed to influencing policy by creating or contributing to a wide-range of campaigns with the aim of bettering the lives of all injured people. Some examples include the firm’s contributions to improving inequality in maternity care and the Government’s Women’s Health Strategy consultation, increasing public awareness around the perpetual NHS A&E winter crises, improving public knowledge around the new Highway Code rules and most recently, creating a quiz to educate the public knowledge around e-scooter use which has reached in excess of 15,000 people. Within this context, we consider that PACTS’ objectives in promoting safety for all those utilising transport systems aligns neatly with what our firm seeks to achieve.
This being the case, Bolt Burdon Kemp is delighted to have become a member organisation of PACTS to support their vital work in raising the profile of road, rail and air transport safety issues with Parliamentarians and Government. As one of over 100 private, public and voluntary member organisations, the firm looks forward to forging a close relationship with PACTS. Our firm will be well placed to contribute to the charity’s goals by attending parliamentary and other stakeholder events across all sectors and collaborating on research projects. In this way, we can continue to effect positive change for our clients, the wider public and the environment by influencing Government policy through collaboration.
This announcement comes during a vital month for promoting awareness of road safety and those who have been killed or injured on our roads – National Road Victim Month. Throughout August, Bolt Burdon Kemp did their bit to contribute to increasing public awareness of road victims and promoting safety across all social media channels.
