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Self-driving vehicles regulation

Lifecycle: Implementation Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles · Department for Transport · Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency · Ministry of Justice · Public Accounts Committee · Regulatory Policy Committee Last regenerated 2 minutes ago

Summary

What this is

A statutory framework — the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 and its first tranche of implementing regulations — that authorises self-driving vehicles for use on public roads in Great Britain, establishes liability and criminal-law rules around their use, and creates a permit-based regime for commercial automated passenger services (APS).

Why it matters

The framework is the legal gateway for commercial driverless deployment in the UK, including taxi/PHV- and bus-like services, and it disapplies key features of taxi, PHV and PSV legislation in favour of a single APS permit issued by the Secretary of State, while keeping local consent rights for licensing authorities and franchising bodies.

Current status

Most of Part 5 and s.93 of the Act came into force on 15 May 2026 alongside SI 2026/439, with civil sanctions (s.84 / Schedule 6) still uncommenced; secondary legislation under other parts of the Act (safety principles, marketing terms, authorisation procedure) is still being developed following the call for evidence that closed on 5 March 2026.

What changed recently

  • 23 Apr 2026 — APS Permits Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/439) made, with Ministerial Statements in both Houses and the Government response to the APS consultation published. →
  • 23 Apr 2026 — Regulatory Policy Committee published its opinion on the DfT options assessment for the APS permitting scheme. →
  • 21 Apr 2026 — AV Act 2024 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/437) made, commencing Part 5 (except s.84 and s.89(8)(b)/(10)) and s.93 on 15 May 2026. →
  • 31 Mar 2026 — DfT published guidance on the self-driving vehicle pilot scheme for applicants and on local authority / transport body roles in APS deployments. →
  • 5 Mar 2026 — Call for evidence on developing the AV regulatory framework closed, informing further secondary legislation under the Act. →

Key documents

Framework

  • Act
    View Original ↗

    Automated Vehicles Act 2024

    Primary legislation establishing the authorisation regime for self-driving vehicles, the statement of safety principles duty, user-in-charge immunity, operator licensing for no-user-in-charge vehicles, the APS permitting regime in Part 5 and protected marketing terms in Part 4.

Operationalising

Implementation

Scrutiny

Evidence

Consultations

Stakeholders

Grouped by role with evidence. Long groups scroll inside their column.

Sponsoring department 4

  • Department for Transport → src
    Policy owner for the AV Act and the APS regime; lays the commencement and APS SIs and runs the implementation programme.
  • Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) → src
    DfT unit delivering the AV Act implementation programme, including APS, safety principles and pilots.
  • Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency ↗
    Operational regulator responsible for vehicle-side standards and authorisation work under the Act.
  • Ministry of Justice → src
    Co-responsible for the criminal-liability framework in Part 2 of the Act and for residual liability questions raised in PQs.

Sponsoring minister 4

  • Heidi Alexander → src
    Secretary of State for Transport; signed HCWS858 on the APS permitting scheme in July 2025 and remains the departmental lead Cabinet minister for the regime.
  • Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill → src
    Then Minister of State for Transport when he delivered the Lords WMSs on APS permitting (HLWS858, HLWS1545) and AV Act implementation (HLWS1130) between July 2025 and April 2026.
  • Simon Lightwood → src
    Then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport; signed SI 2026/439 and the Commons WMSs on APS permitting (HCWS1537) and AV Act implementation (HCWS1131).
  • Lilian Greenwood → src
    Then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport when she made the HCWS692 statement on AV Act implementation in June 2025 announcing the APS consultation.

Other 4

  • Mr Mark Harper ↗
    Conservative MP; Commons sponsor of the Automated Vehicles Bill in 2023-24 as then Secretary of State for Transport.
  • Lord Davies of Gower ↗
    Conservative peer; Lords sponsor of the Automated Vehicles Bill 2023-24.
  • Chris Grayling ↗
    Conservative MP; Commons sponsor of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018, the regime's statutory predecessor.
  • Baroness Sugg ↗
    Conservative peer; Lords sponsor of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018.

Regulator / delivery programme 1

  • Regulatory Policy Committee → src
    Issued the formal opinion on DfT's options assessment for the APS permitting scheme in April 2026.

Lead committee 2

  • Public Accounts Committee → src
    Reported in January 2025 noting DfT's expectation that AV technology must operate with existing highway infrastructure and that no immediate changes to road-maintenance practice are planned.
  • Transport Select Committee → src
    Conducted the 2023 self-driving vehicles inquiry recommending a cautious, gradual roll-out; Government response set the direction for the Bill.

Commentator 4

  • Olly Glover → src
    Liberal Democrat MP focused on disability/accessibility impacts of self-driving technology; tabled two PQs on 29 April 2026 about delivery robots on pavements and their effect on wheelchair users and visually impaired people.
  • Dr Scott Arthur → src
    Labour MP; tabled PQ 129740 (28 April 2026) on whether ADAS assessment should be added to the MOT — adjacent vehicle-tech scrutiny.
  • Tony Vaughan → src
    Labour MP; tabled PQ 129515 (29 April 2026) on road safety steps, eliciting the Road Safety Strategy and AV linkage.
  • Sarah Coombes → src
    Labour MP who opened the 28 October 2025 Westminster Hall debate on Connected and Automated Vehicles.

Political commitments

What parties and ministers have promised — manifesto pledges, King's Speech announcements, ministerial statements. Each card shows what was said, by whom, and when, with a link to the original source.

  • commitment Ministerial statement Labour · 2025 · Automated Vehicles Act 2024 implementation — Ministerial Statement (gov.uk)

    Accelerate APS regulations subject to consultation

    Today (10 June 2025) I can announce that the government will accelerate the introduction of automated passenger services (APS) regulations, subject to the outcome of a consultation later this summer.

    Why linked: Sets the timing commitment that produced the July 2025 consultation and the April 2026 SI.

    Source: Automated Vehicles Act 2024 implementation — Ministerial Statement (gov.uk) · Original ↗
  • commitment Ministerial statement Labour · 2025 · Connected and autonomous vehicles

    Enable pilots of self-driving vehicles without a safety driver by Spring 2026

    from Spring 2026, commercial firms would be able to pilot self-driving vehicles on England's roads without a safety driver, for the first time.

    Why linked: Industrial Strategy / June 2025 commitment that the APS regime delivers operationally.

    Source: Connected and autonomous vehicles · Original ↗
  • commitment Ministerial statement Conservative · 2024 · Self-driving vehicles set to be on roads by 2026 as Automated Vehicles Act beco…

    Self-driving vehicles on UK roads by 2026

    Self-driving vehicles could be on British roads by 2026, after the government's world-leading Automated Vehicles (AV) Act became law today.

    Why linked: Original policy commitment associated with Royal Assent of the AV Act 2024.

    Source: Self-driving vehicles set to be on roads by 2026 as Automated Vehicles Act becomes law · Original ↗

Open questions & gaps

Known gaps in the evidence base and what's still pending.

Pending in the lifecycle

  • Commencement of s.84 of the Act and Schedule 6 (civil sanctions for infringing the permit scheme), which SI 2026/437 explicitly does not bring into force.
  • Publication of the final statement of safety principles under s.2 following the June-September 2025 call for evidence.
  • Secondary legislation under other parts of the Act (authorisation procedure under s.11, operator licensing under Chapter 2, information notice procedure) following the December 2025 call for evidence.
  • Final regulations under Part 4 (protected marketing terms) following closure of the 2025 consultation.

Beyond the corpus

  • MISSING Register of authorisations under s.10 and operational guidance for authorised self-driving entities — Section 10 of the Act requires a register; no public-facing register document appears in the corpus yet.
  • MISSING Detailed statutory guidance on the s.7 transition demand and user-in-charge interaction — Central to the Part 2 immunity framework but no operational guidance has been surfaced.
  • MISSING Equality / inclusivity impact assessment specific to APS deployments — DfT has published research on driver roles and emergencies (events 56326, 56327) but no consolidated EIA is in the corpus despite the scope note flagging it.

Confidence gaps

  • Status of delivery / pavement robots: PQ answers (events 33135, 33137, 56252) suggest these fall under separate 'micromobility' policy work, not the APS regime, but the boundary is not formally documented in the corpus.
  • Interaction between APS permits and the pre-existing Public Service Vehicle Accessible Information Regulations 2023 referenced in PQ HL16482 (event 33138).