Automated Vehicles Bill [HL]: HL Bill 1 of 2023–24
The Automated Vehicles Bill would put into place measures announced in the 2023 King’s Speech to set up a legal framework to enable self-driving cars in the UK. It would establish a regulatory regime for authorising the vehicles, deal with criminal liability and marketing restrictions and allow for automated passenger services, among other things.
The Automated Vehicles Bill [HL] is a government bill introduced in the House of Lords at the beginning of the 2023–24 parliamentary session. Its second reading in the House of Lords is due to take place on 28 November 2023.
The bill would put measures announced in the 2023 King’s Speech in place. In the speech, the government said it would “deliver one of the world’s most comprehensive legal frameworks for self-driving vehicles, with safety at its core”.
The bill would implement the legal framework to enable self-driving vehicles recommended by the Law Commission and Scottish Law Commission, which was then taken up in a government policy paper published in August 2022. It would build on measures in the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 concerning insurance. The bill would:
- create a regulatory framework for automated vehicles
- establish criminal liability for vehicle use
- address policing and investigation
- set conditions about the marketing of automated vehicles
- set up a system for granting permits for automated passenger services
- specify how existing regimes would be adapted to accommodate the measures