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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 a minute ago

Summary

What this is

A statutory regime under the Automated Vehicles Act 2024 establishing how self-driving vehicles are authorised, licensed for passenger use, marketed and policed on roads in Great Britain, with criminal-liability and policing powers reallocated away from the human user-in-charge to authorised self-driving entities and licensed operators.

Why it matters

The regime is moving from legislative completion into operational commencement: Part 5 of the AV Act (permits for automated passenger services) came into force on 15 May 2026 alongside SI 2026/439, enabling the first commercial driverless passenger pilots in Great Britain and replacing the safety-driver requirement that has constrained trials since 2015.

Current status

Part 5 and section 93 commenced on 15 May 2026; the APS permitting scheme is live; statutory consultations on the Statement of Safety Principles, protected marketing terms and the broader AV regulatory framework have closed and government responses are being worked into further secondary legislation. Civil sanctions (s.84) and the Schedule 6 enforcement machinery for the permit scheme have NOT yet been commenced.

What changed recently

  • 23 Apr 2026 — APS Permits Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/439) made; government response to APS consultation published alongside RPC opinion on the options assessment. →
  • 23 Apr 2026 — Ministerial Statements (HCWS1537 / HLWS1545) confirmed the APS permitting scheme would go live in spring 2026. →
  • 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 local authority and transport body roles in considering APS deployments, and the self-driving vehicle pilot scheme applicant information. →
  • 5 Mar 2026 — Call for evidence on developing the wider AV regulatory framework closed; response will feed secondary legislation and codes. →

Key documents

Framework

Operationalising

Implementation

Scrutiny

Evidence

Consultations

Stakeholders

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

Sponsoring department 4

  • Department for Transport → src
    Lead policy department for the AV Act regime and APS permitting scheme; signed SI 2026/437 and SI 2026/439.
  • Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) → src
    Joint DfT/DSIT unit operationally leading AV Act implementation; commissioned the public-understanding and human-factors research on automation terms (March 2026).
  • Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency ↗
    Listed as a responsible body for the regime; expected to discharge in-use monitoring functions under Part 1.
  • Ministry of Justice → src
    Co-responsible body for the criminal-liability framework re-engineered by Part 2 of the AV Act (user-in-charge immunity, ss.46–52).

Sponsoring minister 4

  • Heidi Alexander → src
    Secretary of State for Transport when the APS consultation launched in July 2025; remains the department's Cabinet lead on the regime (live status not confirmed in this build).
  • Simon Lightwood → src
    Then Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport; signed SI 2026/439 and SI 2026/437 and issued HCWS1537 (23 April 2026) and HCWS1131 (4 December 2025) on AV Act implementation.
  • Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill → src
    Then Lords transport minister; repeated the APS and AV framework Ministerial Statements in the Lords (HLWS1545, HLWS1130, HLWS858).
  • Lilian Greenwood → src
    Then Future of Roads Minister; issued the June 2025 implementation WMS (HCWS692) launching the APS consultation track.

Lead committee 3

  • Public Accounts Committee → src
    Examined autonomous vehicle assumptions in the local road network inquiry; flagged that AV deployment is being planned to fit existing highway infrastructure.
  • House of Commons Transport Committee → src
    Published 'Self-driving vehicles' (Seventh Report, Session 2022–23) and the Government response (First Special Report, November 2023), which shaped the AV Bill.
  • Regulatory Policy Committee → src
    Issued formal opinion on DfT's options assessment for the APS permitting scheme (April 2026).

Witnesses & evidence-givers 2

  • Law Commission of England and Wales → src
    Joint review with the Scottish Law Commission produced the regulatory-framework recommendations underpinning the AV Act 2024 and its liability architecture.
  • Scottish Law Commission → src
    Co-author of the Law Commissions' 2022 report recommending the new AV regime.

Commentator 8

  • Sarah Coombes MP → src
    Labour MP; led the 28 October 2025 Westminster Hall debate on connected and automated vehicles, raising the practical experience of riding in an autonomous vehicle in central London.
  • Olly Glover MP → src
    Liberal Democrat MP; tabled PQs 129975 and 129976 (29 April 2026) and HL5953/HL5954 channel on accessibility and public-safety implications of pavement delivery robots and APS operator-permit consent.
  • Tony Vaughan MP → src
    Labour MP; tabled PQ 129515 (29 April 2026) on broader road-safety strategy intersecting the AV regime.
  • Dr Scott Arthur MP → src
    Labour MP; tabled PQ 129740 (28 April 2026) on whether Advanced Driver Assistance Systems should be assessed at MOT — an adjacent vehicle-safety issue.
  • Lord Davies of Gower ↗
    Conservative peer; Lords sponsor of the Automated Vehicles Bill in 2023–24.
  • Mr Mark Harper ↗
    Conservative MP; Commons sponsor of the Automated Vehicles Bill 2023–24 (then Secretary of State for Transport).
  • Baroness Sugg ↗
    Conservative peer; sponsor of the predecessor Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018.
  • Chris Grayling ↗
    Conservative MP; Commons sponsor of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018, which created the insurer-liability regime that persists alongside the AV Act 2024.

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 under the AV Act 2024

    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: Establishes the political timetable that produced SI 2026/439.

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

    Commercial driverless pilots from 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: Headline operational commitment that the May 2026 Part 5 commencement delivers.

    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…

    World-leading AV legal framework on the statute book

    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: Outgoing administration's legacy commitment that the current Labour government is implementing.

    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 AV Act (civil sanctions for infringing the permit scheme) and the associated Schedule 6 enforcement machinery.
  • Publication of the statutory Statement of Safety Principles under s.2 following the closed call for evidence.
  • Government response to the December 2025 – March 2026 call for evidence on developing the wider AV regulatory framework, and the secondary legislation it will inform.
  • Operator licensing regime under Chapter 2 of Part 1 (NUIC operator licences) — Regulations under s.12 not yet made.
  • Authorisation regulations under Chapter 1 of Part 1 (s.11 procedure regulations) — not yet made.

Beyond the corpus

  • MISSING Final Statement of Safety Principles — Section 2 of the AV Act requires the Secretary of State to prepare and publish the statement; the call for evidence closed on 1 September 2025.
  • MISSING Marketing Restrictions Regulations under Part 4 — Consultation closed 1 September 2025; the protected-list regulations have not yet been laid.
  • MISSING Sanctions design output reflecting the July 2025 'sanctions systems' research — DfT commissioned the research to inform Part 1 civil sanctions; design output is not yet on the corpus.
  • MISSING Independent National Audit Office review of AV implementation programme — Public Accounts Committee has scrutinised infrastructure assumptions but no full NAO value-for-money study of the regime appears in corpus.

Confidence gaps

  • Live ministerial postholdings: the build flags Lord Hendy, Simon Lightwood, Heidi Alexander and Lilian Greenwood as 'CURRENT STATUS UNKNOWN'. Treat all attributions as historical to the dated WMS.
  • Whether SI 2026/439's information-sharing gateway (reg.10) will satisfy data-protection scrutiny once operators begin publishing live-location and accident data.