IN BRIEF
British police seized 7,049 bikes deemed illegal over the twelve months to 19 May, against 3,858 in the previous period — a rise of 83%. The figures, obtained by the Press Association from 31 of the country’s 45 police forces under freedom of information law, put London’s Metropolitan Police top with 2,367 seizures. Eleven of those 31 forces saw their seizure numbers more than double in a year. The machines involved are modified bikes whose assistance does not cut out at 15.5mph and which reach high speeds without pedalling — vehicles that British law no longer recognises as bicycles.
The figure is blunt, and it says something about the British street: in a year, police seized nearly twice as many illegal electric bikes as the year before. Seven thousand and forty-nine machines confiscated over the twelve months to 19 May 2026, against 3,858 in the previous period. “Some 7,049 of these machines were seized across the UK in the twelve months to 19 May, according to data obtained by the Press Association under freedom of information laws”, the agency reports.
Illegal e-bike seizures concentrated in London
A third of the seizures happen in the capital. “The Metropolitan Police was the force most active in seizing electric bikes, with 2,367 bikes confiscated in London alone over the period documented”, road.cc notes. Far behind come Leicestershire (661), Police Scotland (585) and Thames Valley (425).
Of the 45 UK forces approached, 31 supplied comparable data. The Press Association’s tally also shows that eleven of those 31 forces saw their seizure numbers more than double year on year.
What British law calls an electric bike
It all comes down to a definition. In the UK, a legal electrically assisted bike is called an EAPC — Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle — and it is treated as an ordinary bicycle provided its rider is at least 14 years old. The rules state that the motor must not exceed 250 watts of continuous rated power and that the bike must keep usable pedals. Assistance must cut out at 15.5mph, or 25km/h.
The machines targeted by the seizures are those that fall outside that framework: “illegally modified bikes, whose assistance does not cut out at 15.5mph and which can reach high speeds without pedalling”, road.cc writes. In legal terms these are no longer bicycles but mopeds, with everything that implies in registration, insurance and licensing.
Proving it on the pavement is another matter. City of London Police has equipped itself for the job: according to road.cc, Sergeant Stuart Ford says the force has begun using portable rolling roads, similar to those used by Dutch police, to measure a motor’s top speed and determine whether the bike is legal.
A June law that removed the warning requirement
The tightening of the law came afterwards. In late June 2026, more than five weeks after the end of the period documented, the Crime and Policing Act strengthened police powers, allowing officers to seize an illegal bike used in antisocial behaviour without having to issue a prior warning. Until then, a warning was the rule, apart from the exceptions the law provided for.
The Labour government responded to the publication of the figures. “Illegal electric bikes capable of reaching dangerous speeds have no place on our roads and pavements, and the rise in seizures shows the scale of the problem police are facing”, a government spokesperson said.
In Parliament, Labour MP Julie Minns is campaigning to ban the sale of these bikes and of the conversion kits used to build them. In some cases these machines have caused deaths and serious injuries, the Press Association notes. She describes them as “the perfect accessory for phone theft, robbery and drug dealing”, and is calling for them to be classified as a dangerous product in order to stop them being sold online.
The subject is unlikely to end there: the confusion between legal bikes and derestricted machines, in the eyes of the public as much as in those of the police, is precisely what the British cycling industry fears.
