Helen Maguire

I absolutely agree and will talk more about the human cost. The changes would provide an accurate oversight of the scale and distribution of the issue. That would lead to more effective enforcement and legislation. How can we begin to address the issue if we do not understand the full picture? Behind the limited statistics is an unacceptable price of injury and death, particularly for children. At my roundtable, I spoke to Dr Durand, a consultant in paediatric emergency medicine. Her research in the Emergency Medicine Journal analysed e-scooter injury data over six years, from three major children’s trauma centres, in Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield. She found that 447 children attended hospital following an e-scooter-related injury; one in 10 had serious head injuries requiring hospital admission and surgery; and 95% of injuries involved the rider. She also found that the average age of an injured child was 12, with half aged between 10 and 13; that annual cases rose from fewer than 10 in 2019 to almost 150 by 2024; that as many as 74% of the injured children live in areas with the greatest socioeconomic deprivation; and that under 2% of riders were wearing a helmet. I want to tell you about Jacob’s journey, because behind each of the statistics is a child with possible life-ending injuries, and permanently changed families. One of those is the Calland family. I was fortunate to meet Carly Calland for the second time at my roundtable. The Calland family tragically lost their son, Jacob, in an e-scooter incident. On 19 March 2025, Jacob left home and met up with a friend. He decided to ride as passenger on the back of that boy’s e-scooter, without any protective gear. That decision cost him his life. At 3.59 pm, the e-scooter collided with a car. Jacob was thrown to the other side of the road and landed in front of oncoming traffic. He suffered a catastrophic head injury, and was brought into the intensive care unit and put in a coma. He underwent multiple surgeries to try to control the bleeding and swelling on the brain, but his condition began to deteriorate, and there was nothing more that could be done to save his life. Jacob Calland passed away at 5.18 am on Thursday 27 March 2025. He was just 14 years and nine months old. How many more children need to die for the Government to take this issue seriously? There was no mention of e-scooter and e-bike legislation in the King’s Speech, and the DFT said that the earliest that legislation could be considered is May 2027. That is unacceptable. The lack of time in the parliamentary calendar is not an excuse for failing to act to save our children’s lives.