Law Commissions' consultation on automated vehicles: a regulatory framework for automated vehicles

Overview

This is a public consultation by the Law Commission for England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission.

The consultation questions are drawn from our third consultation paper published as part of a review of automated vehicles. For more information about this project, click here.

In the consultation paper, we make provisional proposals for a new regulatory system, examining the definition of “self-driving”; safety assurance before AVs are deployed on the road; and how to assure safety on an ongoing basis. We also consider user and fleet operator responsibilities, civil liability, criminal liability and access to data.   

We recommend that consultees read the consultation paper, which can be found on our websites:

https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/automated-vehicles/.

https://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/law-reform/law-reform-projects/joint-projects/automated-vehicles/.

A shorter summary is also available on the same pages. 

We are committed to providing accessible publications. If you require this consultation paper to be made available in a different format please email automatedvehicles@lawcommission.gov.uk.

How to respond:

Consultees do not need to answer all the questions if they are only interested in some aspects of the consultation.

Responses to our consultation questions can be in any format and do not need to be submitted via this online platform. However, we recommend using this online platform because it assists us to efficiently compile your answers. To begin answering the consultation questions online, click on the button at the bottom of this page.

If you wish to respond as a group using Citizen Space, please follow the instructions below.

1. Click ‘go to the consultation questions’.
2. Fill in the details of one person in your group. Please indicate that you are responding as a group.
3. Scroll down and click ‘save and come back later’.
4. Enter your email address.
5. You will be sent an email with a link. Circulate this email within your group. Anyone who has the link will be able to edit the responses.
6. Do not click submit until everyone in the group has entered their response. Once you have clicked submit, you will not be able to edit your response. Instead, click ‘save and come back later’.
7. When everyone has entered their responses, click submit.

About the Law Commissions: The Law Commissions are statutory bodies created for the purpose of promoting law reform. The Law Commissions are independent of Government. For more information about the Law Commission of England and Wales please click here. For more information about the Scottish Law Commission please click here.

Publication of responses to this consultation: We may publish or disclose information you provide us in response to this consultation, including personal information. For more information on how we consult and how we may use responses to the consultation, please see page ii of the consultation paper. For information about how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy notice.