Public EV chargers face cyber security, anti-tamper and meter rules as DfT consults

Public electric car chargers in Great Britain could soon have to meet a recognised cyber security standard, resist physical tampering and use a legally approved electricity meter. The Department for Transport (DfT) opened a consultation on 29 October 2026, and it closes at 11:59pm on 20 December 2026.

For drivers, the proposals are about trust: that a charger cannot easily be hacked or opened up, and that the kilowatt hours you pay for are measured to a legal standard. That matters because public charging costs far more per kWh than charging at home. Nothing changes yet. This is a consultation, and no start date has been set.

What has the DfT proposed?

The consultation says that “there are currently no specific cyber security requirements for public charge points”. It proposes four things for public charge points “sold or installed in GB”:

Proposal	What it would mean
Cyber security standard	Chargers must comply with ETSI EN 303 645, a European standard for internet-connected consumer devices
Alternative route	EN 18031 may be accepted as equivalent, so makers already certified to it would not need separate ETSI compliance
Anti-tamper protection	Chargers must be built to resist physical damage and show or detect any attempt to get inside
Approved meters	Chargers must have electricity meters that meet the Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016

The DfT’s consultation document says attacks on chargers “could potentially disrupt and negatively impact drivers, businesses and national infrastructure”. It describes two kinds of risk: direct attacks on charge points, and chargers being “manipulated or misused to compromise other parts of the charging network”.

Which chargers would the rules cover?

Only new ones. The consultation document says: “If proceeded with, we intend to apply the requirements in these proposals to sold and installed public charge points only. We will not require retrofitting.” When existing chargers reach the end of their life, the DfT says, “they will need to be replaced with compliant devices”.

The scope is public charge points sold or installed in Great Britain, so it reaches chargers at the point of sale as well as at installation. The document does not set different rules for slow, fast or rapid chargers. The proposal is for Great Britain, and the consultation page does not mention Northern Ireland.

What would anti-tamper protection involve?

Public chargers sit in car parks and on pavements, often unattended for hours. The DfT says that makes them vulnerable to physical attacks, “potentially exacerbated by their location in public places”, and that they are “at risk of meter tampering for fraud”.

The measures it proposes include:

• Physical strength: chargers built or configured to give “an adequate level of protection against physical damage”.
• A tamper seal or sticker, so it is obvious if someone has opened the unit.
• A tamper sensor “on or within their casing to detect any breach of the casing”.
• An alert: if anyone tries to get at the internal components, the device notifies the end-user.

The consultation asks for views on each of these and on what they would cost. It does not mention card skimming or fake QR codes, the scam drivers are most likely to have heard of. Our guide to the fake QR code scam on EV chargers explains how that one works and how to avoid it.

Why does the meter rule matter to drivers?

Because you pay by the kWh, and public kWh are expensive. The DfT proposes that every public charger has a meter that meets the Measuring Instruments Regulations 2016, at minimum a Class B meter, which the consultation describes as accurate “to within 2%”. It says this “would support consumer and CPO interests by ensuring the accuracy of public charge points” and reduce the risk of fraud through meter tampering.

The consultation does not say how many public chargers already use approved meters, so we cannot say how much would change in practice. What we can show is why accuracy matters more at a public charger than at home. The figures below use Zapmap’s September 2026 average pay as you go prices, checked today, and Ofgem’s capped electricity rate for October to December 2026. The 40kWh charge is our example, roughly a 10% to 80% top up on a mid-sized EV.

Where you charge	Price per kWh	Cost of 40kWh	2% of that bill
Rapid or ultra-rapid public charger	79p (Zapmap average)	£31.60	63p
Slow or fast public charger	54p (Zapmap average)	£21.60	43p
Home, standard capped rate	26.32p (Ofgem cap)	£10.53	21p

The 2% figure is the outer limit the DfT gives for a Class B meter, not a typical error, and a meter’s error could just as easily favour the driver as the operator. The point is scale. At rapid charging prices, any measurement error costs three times as much per kWh as it would at the capped home rate.

Over a year the numbers add up. A driver covering 8,000 miles at 3.5 miles per kWh uses about 2,290kWh. Bought entirely at the 79p rapid average, that is about £1,810, and 2% of it is about £36. Most drivers charge partly at home and pay far less, but for people without a driveway who rely on public chargers, a legal standard for the meter is a real consumer protection. Zapmap’s latest figures are covered in our report on public EV charging prices in October 2026.

How does this compare with home charger rules?

Home chargers are already regulated. The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 came into force on 30 June 2022 and require smart charge points sold for homes and workplaces to have smart functions such as off-peak scheduling. Their security requirements, in Schedule 1, apply to chargers sold from 30 December 2022. They cover passwords, software updates, secure communication, protection against attack and a security log.

Those rules expressly exclude “public charge points” and “rapid charge points”, which the regulations define as chargers of 50kW or more. That is the gap this consultation would close.

	Home and workplace smart chargers	Public chargers
Security rules today	Yes, Schedule 1 of the 2021 regulations	None specific, according to the DfT
In force since	Sold from 30 December 2022	Proposed, no start date
Standard	Requirements written into the regulations	ETSI EN 303 645, or possibly EN 18031
Physical anti-tamper rules	Yes, a tamper-protection boundary and an alert to the owner if it is breached	Proposed, including a seal and a casing sensor
Meter accuracy rule	A measuring system accurate to within 10%, not an MIR 2016 meter	Proposed, Class B under MIR 2016, within 2%

The DfT notes that the home charger security requirements are “due to be revoked and replaced” by proposed Energy Smart Appliance Regulations. Best Chargers explains how the home rules work in its guide to UK smart charging regulations and its overview of new EV charging laws in the UK.

When would the rules start and who would enforce them?

Neither is settled. The consultation sets no implementation date. It asks manufacturers and operators how long they would need, noting that “physical changes in particular can take longer” because of product development cycles, and encourages them “to implement changes as soon as they are able to”.

On enforcement, the DfT says compliance would be checked by a regulator still to be chosen. It is consulting on two ways of proving compliance: self-assessment against the ETSI test specification with spot checks by the regulator, or certification by an accredited third-party test house.

What else is coming for charger security?

The consultation sits alongside other work, according to the DfT and EV Fleet World:

• Operators: a possible second phase could require charge point operators and e-mobility service providers to follow a cyber security best practice framework.
• Large networks: organisations controlling 300 megawatts or more of electrical load across their network would fall under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018, subject to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill. EV Fleet World reports that most organisations are not expected to be in scope at first.
• Car to charger communication: the DfT and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero plan a separate consultation on requiring support for the ISO 15118-20 standard.

What should drivers do now?

Nothing urgent. Existing chargers are not affected by the proposals, and there has been no suggestion that public charging is unsafe to use today. Sensible habits still help:

• Pay through the charger’s own contactless reader or the operator’s official app where you can. Our guide to contactless EV charging explains where it is available.
• Check the charger looks intact. Avoid one with a damaged casing, loose panels or a sticker over the payment area, and report it to the operator.
• Compare the kWh delivered with your car’s own figure. The two will rarely match exactly, because some energy is lost in charging, but a large gap is worth raising with the operator.

If you want to have your say, the consultation is open to individuals as well as businesses. The GOV.UK page links to an online form, the preferred route, and gives email and postal details for the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles.

Our view

This is overdue housekeeping rather than a response to a crisis. Home chargers have had security rules for almost four years, while the far more exposed public network has had none. Requiring approved meters is the part most drivers will feel, even if they never notice it: at 79p a kWh, being confident in the meter matters. The proposals only apply to new chargers, and there is no start date yet, so the change will come gradually as the network is replaced and expanded. What to watch for is when the rules start and who enforces them.