The Justice Secretary has suggested a licensing scheme for e-bikes and e-scooters amid concerns over anti-social behaviour and crime involving the vehicles.
Neil Gray said more “could and should and must be done” to make it easier for officers to track offenders and detain vehicles.
He said that would include working with the UK Government, which controls vehicle regulations and licences.
David Linden, deputy convenor of Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee, told the minister that MSPs were increasingly receiving complaints about “young men dressed head to toe in black, sometimes wearing face coverings, zooming around on souped-up e-bikes and e-scooters”.
The MSP said that “as well as being highly dangerous, they’re sometimes connected to drugs and organised crime” as he urged the Government to “get a grip on the issue”.
Mr Gray said he had been made aware of the same problem in his Airdrie constituency.
He said he would work with the UK Government on the issue “because I think there is more that could and should and must be done around the licensing of these vehicles so that the police’s work in tracking and detaining individuals and their vehicles can be progressed”, before promising “that is an issue I will be taking forward”.
The Justice Secretary said he had asked Police Scotland whether the force needed more powers “to ensure that they are enabled to capture and to deter this type of behaviour”.
“There are two parts to it,” he added. “One is that culture that we’re talking about (people) dressed all in black with balaclavas on.
“There is a cross-section across football hooliganism, violence against women and girls, antisocial behaviour, and organised criminal gang activity that I think we have much more work to do to support what is a minority of young boys, but is certainly an issue that we’re facing with young boys.”
Mr Gray said that while the majority of young men were “fine, upstanding citizens” and “good, law-abiding folk” there were some being “fuelled by online misogyny”.
He said he was now working with police “around what powers they need in order to deter this”.
“It’s not just e-bikes and e-scooters,” he said. “It’s off-road bikes, it’s quad bikes, and that work is under way.”
He told MSPs he was “hoping to be able to have news for colleagues on that in due course”.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “Privately owned e-scooters remain illegal on roads, pavements and other public spaces, and we’re bringing forward new laws to make their use safe.
“Illegal e-bikes that can reach dangerous speeds also have no place on our roads and pavements.
“That’s why we’ve strengthened police powers, changing the law so that officers no longer need to issue a warning before seizing them.”