Sussex Police seized 295 e-bikes and e-scooters across Sussex in 2025, up from 113 in 2024, and 271 of them were destroyed, according to the force’s own Freedom of Information response, updated in January 2026. The figures cover the whole of Sussex, not Brighton and Hove on its own, and they stop before the “no returns” procedure that began on 1 November 2026.
Seized in 2025. 145 e-bikes and 150 e-scooters.
Destroyed in 2025. 125 e-bikes and 146 e-scooters.
Collected by their owners in 2025. 20 e-bikes and 4 e-scooters.
Seizures year by year, 2021 to 2025
The force gave a yearly count of what it seized and what happened to each vehicle afterwards. The totals below add the e-bike and e-scooter figures together.
2021. 67 seized (2 e-bikes and 65 e-scooters). 41 destroyed and 26 collected by their owners.
2022. 284 seized (13 e-bikes and 271 e-scooters). 248 were deemed illegal to ride on public roads: 174 of those were destroyed and 74 collected by their owners.
2023. 93 seized (20 e-bikes and 73 e-scooters). 46 destroyed and 47 collected by their owners.
2024. 113 seized (36 e-bikes and 77 e-scooters). 89 destroyed (63 e-scooters and 26 e-bikes) and 24 collected by their owners (14 e-scooters and 10 e-bikes).
2025. 295 seized (145 e-bikes and 150 e-scooters). 271 destroyed (146 e-scooters and 125 e-bikes) and 24 collected by their owners (4 e-scooters and 20 e-bikes).
E-bike seizures went from 36 to 145 in a year
The biggest change between 2024 and 2025 was e-bikes. Seizures rose from 36 to 145, around four times as many, while e-scooter seizures roughly doubled from 77 to 150.
The share of seized vehicles that were destroyed also grew. By ImJustBrighton’s calculation from the force’s numbers, 271 of the 295 vehicles seized in 2025 were destroyed, about 92%. In 2024 it was 89 of 113, about 79%, and in 2023 it was 46 of 93, about half.
Owners collected 24 vehicles in each of 2024 and 2025. Before the new procedure, officers could use their discretion when stopping a rider, and that could mean words of advice instead of a seizure, as the force explained in its announcement on 30 October 2026.
Collisions involving e-scooters and e-bikes
The force also counted road traffic collisions involving each type of vehicle.
E-scooter collisions. 36 in 2021, 28 in 2022, 28 in 2023, 20 in 2024 and 13 in 2025.
E-bike collisions. 1 in 2021, 15 in 2022, 14 in 2023, 7 in 2024 and 19 in 2025. The 2025 list also includes one collision involving a unicycle.
When it was asked separately about incidents that caused injuries, the force gave the same numbers for each year.
Fines for riding without insurance
Sussex Police issued fixed penalty notices to people riding an e-scooter on a public road without insurance in every year it was asked about: 9 in 2021, 10 in 2022, 4 in 2023, 3 in 2024 and 5 in 2025.
The force says it cannot give totals for arrests, prosecutions or fines linked to e-bikes and e-scooters more widely. Its records have no field that flags an offence as involving one, so it also cannot say how many phone snatchings, muggings or other crimes involved an e-bike or e-scooter. It does not record how many seized vehicles had been modified to go faster than the legal limit.
What the law says about e-bikes and e-scooters
Superintendent Jo Grantham, head of roads policing for Sussex Police and Surrey Police, says e-scooters are illegal to use in public unless they are hired through an authorised rental scheme. Our guide to the Beryl e-scooter trial in Brighton and Hove explains how the rental scheme works.
On e-bikes, the force’s response says an illegal e-bike is treated as a motorcycle or a powered transporter. A rider then needs a helmet, insurance, a driving licence, an MOT and a vehicle excise licence, and the vehicle must meet construction and use rules. Powered transporters need everything on that list except the helmet.
How to read these figures
Sussex Police compiled one combined response because of the number of Freedom of Information requests it had received on the subject. It says the numbers come from a keyword search of its records, so they may not include every offence, and that they should not be used to compare forces or quoted as official statistics. They are counted by the date a crime was recorded, not the date it happened.
The figures sit alongside the wider picture in our report on Operation Scramble, the operation Sussex Police launched against illegal e-bike and e-scooter riding. From 1 November 2026 the force and Surrey Police treat seized e-scooters, illegal e-bikes, e-motorcycles and unregistered off-road motorcycles under the no returns approach, set out in our report on the new procedure.
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