Contents

9.1. Standards and regulations

Key standards and regulations for ensuring universal accessibility of infrastructure

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Publicly available specification (PAS) 1899:2022 standard

The world’s first national accessible public electric vehicle charging standard has been produced by the BSI, co-sponsored by Motability and OZEV/DfT. This is titled: ‘PAS 1899:2022: electric vehicles – accessible charging – specification’ and was published in October 2022.

It sets out the requirements for the provision of accessible public charging for all plug-in vehicles to all potential drivers and pedestrians, to create an inclusive charging environment for all including disabled and older people, and people with learning disabilities or neurodiverse conditions. The focus is to agree minimum accessibility standards for all public chargepoints and settings in which more enhanced accessibility can be deployed.

Although we have highlighted a select few accessibility challenges in this section, PAS 1899:2022 is the key and comprehensive resource to consult when developing inclusive infrastructure. You can download this document from the BSI Group website.

Scottish building regulations

As discussed in the powering your chargepoints section, these regulations, with specific reference to electric vehicle charging provision requirements have been amended following publication of a consultation response by Transport Scotland in August 2022.

The latest Building Standards technical handbooks, for use from 5th June 2023, see the introduction of new standard 7.2 (electric vehicle charging) within Section 7 (sustainability). You can access these handbooks on the Scottish government website.

One of the policies being taken forward concerns accessible parking spaces in new residential and non-residential building developments and in residential and non-residential buildings having major renovations made to them. In these instances, the responsible parties must ensure the proportion of accessible spaces provided with electric vehicle chargepoint sockets of at least 7kW output capacity, is the same as for standard parking spaces.