United Kingdom

- The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 - The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 - The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 - The Buildings Regulations 2010 (as amended) - What can we expect for the future of Electric Vehicle charging legislation in the UK?

The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023

What are the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023?

The Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 (PCP Regs), which came into force in November 2023, were introduced to improve consumer experience when using public charge points in the UK, focusing on key areas to ensure:

consumers can easily locate the right public charge point to fit their needs.
ease of payment across public charge points.
consumers can be confident that public charge points will be in good working order; and
consumers can compare prices across multiple public charge point networks

Who do the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023 apply to?

The PCP Regs place obligations on Charge Point Operators (CPOs), who are operators of public charge points (whether they are the owner of the charge points or not).

Charge points which are considered public under the PCP Regs include charge points located:

in residential car parks but not designated to individual households.
in privately-owned car parks which the public has access to, such as supermarkets and hotel car parks; or
on public roads for public use.

The Government guidance helpfully sets out further information on this distinction as to whether a charge point is public or private under the PCP Regs.

What are the requirements of the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023?

The “Legal Obligations” section of the Government’s guidance provides a succinct list of the requirements imposed by the PCP Regs on public charge points as follows:

Contactless payment: effective 24 November 2024, existing ‘rapid’ charge points and new charge points over 8kW must accept contactless payments.
Payment roaming (the ability to pay to charge an EV across multiple charge point networks using a single app or Radio-Frequency Identification card): public charge points must enable consumers to pay through at least one third party payment roaming provider by November 2025.
Open data: mandates the recording and maintenance of accurate data records and sharing of data to government bodies, Distribution Network Operators, Transmission Owners and Electricity Systems Operators upon request by November 2024.
Reliability: imposes a 99% reliability requirement for rapid public charge points, with annual reporting to the Department for Transport from November 2024.
Pricing transparency: requires the introduction of a standard pricing metric of pence per kilowatt hour which must not increase once charging has started. This requirement has applied to all charge point operators since 24 November 2023.
Ease of payment: from November 2024, public charge point operators must ensure that payment methods are not brand-specific and do not require mobile or internet signal. This requirement applies to new sites of 8kW and above and must be retrofitted to existing public rapid charge points.
Helpline Support: from 24 November 2024, CPOs will be required to provide a free helpline, staffed 24/7. The helpline must offer consumers real-time assistance and CPOs will have to report helpline metrics (e.g. the nature of complaints and resolutions reached) on a quarterly basis to the Department for Transport.

Who enforces the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023?

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is part of the Department for Business and Trade and acts on behalf of the Secretary of State to enforce the PCP Regs. In the event of noncompliance, the OPSS can serve a compliance notice requiring action to be taken to remedy the breach. A compliance notice may, in addition, prohibit the recipient of the notice from installing further public charge points until action has been taken to remedy a breach or breaches set out in the notice. Operators of charge points which breach the PCP Regs can be liable for up to a £10,000 fine for each breach, per charge point (or per network for a breach of the reliability standards).

The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021

What are the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021?

The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 (Smart Charge Point Regs) came into force in June 2022. Their primary purpose is to:

introduce regulations which require domestic and workplace EV charge points to include smart functionality; and
mandate that these charge points meet specified cybersecurity requirements and operate in certain ways to protect the stability of the electricity grid and to protect consumers.

Smart functionality or smart charging are umbrella terms for several features. The most essential of these features is connectivity, or the ability of a charger to establish a wireless connection, typically via Bluetooth or the internet. This allows:

consumers to control charging via their smartphones.
the connection of charge points to a home’s energy management system; and
the gathering of data on charging behaviour. Other features of smart charge points include dynamic load balancing, renewable energy integration and the incorporation of charging schedules.

Who do the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 apply to?

The Smart Charge Point Regs apply to any person or business selling, offering or advertising charge points intended for use by vans or cars in a domestic or workplace setting. They do not apply to public charging infrastructure or rapid charge points.

What are the requirements of the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021?

The Smart Charge Point Regs are intended to achieve their aims by mandating that in-scope charge points:

have the technical capability to smart charge.
do not introduce barriers to switching energy suppliers (e.g. the loss of smart functionality when its owner changes supplier).
remain operable if network connection is lost.
prevent users carrying out certain functions such as a ‘consumer override’ of certain default functions where these may result in a safety risk.
collect energy consumption data and make this data accessible to consumers.
do not, by default, charge vehicles at peak times - though the Smart Charge Point Regs do provide that consumers must have the ability to change or remove this setting after first use.
have a randomised delay function to prevent all in-scope charge points from turning on or off simultaneously, which could cause significant grid instability; and
employ good ‘cyber hygiene’ by using unique passwords, storing sensitive information securely, and encrypting communications, in line with the best practices set out in the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Code of Practice for Consumer ‘Internet of Things’ Security and the European cybersecurity standard, ETSI EN 303 645.

It is hoped that the Smart Charge Point Regs will help the UK’s electricity system cope with the increased demand placed on it by EV charging. Smart charging is seen as the simplest way of mitigating the impacts of increased electricity demand on the grid while enabling consumers to take part in the flexible energy system.

Who enforces the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021?

The Smart Charge Point Regs empower the OPSS to issue compliance notices or civil penalties up to a maximum of £10,000 in respect of each non-compliant charge point sold, and a maximum of £250,000 for obstructing the enforcement authority.

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017

What are the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017?

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 (AFIR) were implemented to ensure that publicly accessible alternative fuel infrastructure (electricity and hydrogen) for road transport complies with technical specification and customer experience standards to enable a minimum level of access and information for consumers.

Who do the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017 apply to?

AFIR applies directly to operators of electric and hydrogen recharging infrastructure, whether as owner or on behalf of another party. Equipment manufacturers of recharging installations will also be impacted as they will have to ensure that their products meet the standards if they are to maintain sales.

What are the requirements of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017?

AFIR requires EV charging infrastructure operators to ensure that:

users have ad-hoc access to their infrastructure (i.e. users must be able to charge their vehicles without requiring a pre-existing contract or membership).
their infrastructure has intelligent metering capabilities and provides data to customers; and
they provide data, where available, on the location of the charging points for which they are responsible.

Who enforces the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulations 2017?

The body responsible for enforcing AFIR is the OPSS, which is enabled under the AFIR to gather evidence related to potential breaches and to impose civil penalties for breaches of the requirements. AFIR sets maximum civil penalties ranging from £500 to £4,000 per charge point for breach of the regulations. Please find the full list of civil penalties at table 22 of this guidance document.

The Buildings Regulations 2010 (as amended)

How do the Building Regulations impact EV charging?

In 2021, a new Part S was added to the Building Regulations 2010 (as amended) (Building Regs) to include provisions requiring the installation of EV charging stations in England. At present, the Building Regs do not prescribe any EV charging requirements for Wales and Northern Ireland. The Scottish Government is working on its own EV charging update to the Scottish equivalent of the Building Regs.

The Building Regs apply to installers, architects, property developers, property managers, property owners, and contractors. In practice, the building owner and the organisations designing and carrying out the building works will be accountable for adhering to the Building Regs.

Under the Building Regs:

all new non-residential buildings with 10 or more parking spaces must include (i) a minimum of one charge point and (ii) cable routes for 1 in every five spaces.
residential buildings undergoing major renovation, and which will have ten or more parking spaces, must include (i) at least one charge point per residential unit with associated parking and (ii) cable routes in all parking spaces without charge points.
all non-residential buildings undergoing major renovation, and which will have ten or more parking spaces, must include (i) a minimum of one charge point and (ii) cable routes for one in every five spaces; and
all new homes with parking, including new homes created from a change of use, must have an EV charge point.

The Building Regs also set minimum standards for EV charge points – regulation 44J requires that all charge points:

can provide a reasonable power output for each parking space for which it is intended to be used.
run on a dedicated circuit; and
are compatible with all vehicles which may require access to them.

The work of installing EV charge points is ‘notifiable’ under the Building Regs. This means electrical work connected to the installation will need to be approved by either (i) the local building control body or (ii) a registered competent person (as defined in the Building Regs) who will then need to produce a Compliance Certificate.

In case of non-compliance with the Building Regs, local authorities may take enforcement action. Enforcement action can include requiring that works are pulled down or removed. Contraventions of the Building Regs can also result in prosecution from local authorities in the magistrates’ court where an unlimited fine may be imposed.

What can we expect for the future of Electric Vehicle charging legislation in the UK?

The Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018 (AEVA) is the enabling legislation under which regulations relating to electric vehicles (and automated vehicles) are made law. The powers laid out within the AEVA empower the Government to meet the following aims:

improve the consumer experience of charging infrastructure.
ensure provision of EV charging infrastructure at key strategic locations like motorway service areas (MSAs); and
require that charge points have ‘smart’ capability.

More specifically, the Secretary of State has powers to make regulations to:

address issues of interoperability by promoting uniform methods of accessing public charging and refuelling points and by specifying minimum standards of design and functionality for charging point manufacturers.
require MSAs and large fuel retailers to provide public and accessible charging points.
deal with the lack of consistency, both in form and content, of publicly available information (e.g. real time data) on charging points.
ensure that certain persons, such as the electricity system operator and electricity network operators, are provided with charging point data.
create an enforcement regime, which can include civil penalties.
prevent charge points from being sold or installed in the UK if they do not comply with the “smart” functionality requirements; and provide carve outs and exceptions to the above requirements to ensure that they are not unjust or overly onerous.

Future secondary legislation (Regulations) will be enacted under the AEVA so it will be important to monitor progress. Annual progress reports published by the Government offer a useful source of information.

See the latest report here.

Planning

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is making its way through Parliament at the time of writing, will remove some of the obstacles to carrying out the street works for installing EV public charge points. The need for licences where street works are capable of being authorised by permits will be removed and operators will be given access to permits when installing EV charging infrastructure.

The recent Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2025 makes changes to permitted development rights for EV charging.

The Government also recently opened a call for evidence seeking views on current planning rules and how they may be amended further to facilitate the installation of EV charging infrastructure.

Smart Secure Electricity Systems (SESS) Programme

According to a recently published response to a consultation on the Smart Secure Electricity Systems (SESS) Programme, the Government intends to introduce secondary legislation on energy smart appliances. The SESS programme aims to ensure that smart devices, including EV chargers, will be able to participate seamlessly in flexibility markets, reducing energy costs for consumers and the country’s aggregate electricity use at peak demand periods.

The planned legislation will consolidate existing requirements for EV smart charge points into a single set of regulations and contain a set of minimum standards in relation to smart functionality, cybersecurity and grid stability. The Government also proposes to introduce a new load control licence framework, to be regulated by Ofgem, with the aim of protecting consumer and electricity systems in the adoption of these technologies.

The Government states that there will be an implementation period for the secondary legislation, which will conclude no later than the end of 2027.

Solar canopies on car parks

The Government recently launched a call for evidence on a proposal to mandate the installation of solar canopies on new outdoor car parks in Great Britain and identified localised power for EV charging points as a potential benefit to the proposal.