Driverless Vehicles
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment framework will be provided to local transport authorities, such as Transport for London, to assist them in determining whether to grant local consent for autonomous vehicle pilots in their areas.
Answered by Simon Lightwood
To support the Automated Passenger Services permitting scheme, my department published non-statutory guidance in March 2026 to help consenting authorities, which may be a local authority or local transport body, to understand their role in the consenting process.
This guidance does not prescribe how consenting authorities should approach decision making. Instead, it sets out issues that a consenting authority may want to consider. This includes alignment with existing policies and strategies, for example, local transport plans, environment strategies and existing taxi and private-hire vehicle policy.
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