Complaint to the  Regulations Review Committee

Almost since Cycling Health came together as a group, members have written letters to successive Ministers of Transport commenting on the compulsory cycle helmet regulation and calling for the long promised review.  These letters invariably evoked a boilerplate response ending in the words; “We can find no evidence to support the revocation of this law” or “Since introduction of a compulsory helmet law no country has revoked it.”

These assertions are wrong on both counts:

• There is a mass of freely available scientific and medical evidence militating against the use of cycle helmets by everyday utility cyclists.  Ministers and their advisers just have to take the trouble to look and evaluate this mass of evidence.
• New Zealand and Australia are the only countries that have introduced mandatory helmet laws for all cyclists.  Other countries have flirted with the idea, but on examination of the evidence and other matters, have dropped it.
• Some US States have MHL for under 18year olds,  Israel and Mexico revoked their legislation and Queensland is likely to do so.  Europe is free of such legislation and many countries use other, more effective, ways to promote cyclist safety.

As a Regulation, section 11.8 of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 is liable to complaint.  On January 28 2014 such a complaint was submitted to the Regulations Review Committee.