Department for Transport
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21st Century makeover for Disabled Parking scheme
Proposals to increase the reach of the Disabled Parking (Blue Badge) scheme to more people who need it and make it easier to take action against those who steal, forge or fraudulently use a Blue Badge have today been put out for consultation by Transport Minister Rosie Winterton.
The consultation contains proposals to ensure that parking close to essential amenities and services continues to be available to those that need it most.
The last review of the Blue Badge Scheme took place almost a decade ago and this consultation offers the opportunity to make sure the Blue Badge Scheme is fit for purpose in the 21st century.
Rosie Winterton said:
"The Blue Badge Scheme was designed to increase the mobility and independence of disabled people and today I am proposing that we extend its reach to help more people, including a greater number of parents who have to transport bulky medical equipment with their children and people with severe autism.
"The Government is also determined to take action against those who forge, steal or fraudulently use a Badge. That is why I want to hear people's views about ways of making the Badge more secure and better ways of taking immediate action against Blue Badge cheats who steal, forge or use a Badge they are not entitled to.
"All councils should operate high standard Blue Badge schemes. That is why I have launched a £500,000 fund, along with new guidance, to highlight good practice and help councils learn important lessons from one another." The proposals include:
* Extending the reach of the scheme, for example, ensuring more parents of severely disabled children are eligible for a Badge;
* Giving parking attendants the power to confiscate on the spot Blue Badges that have been stolen, forged or are being fraudulently used;
* Improving the security of the badge design to prevent forgeries;
* Creating a system of national data sharing, to identify blue badge cheats;
The consultation also asks if individual local authorities should be given the opportunity to run the Scheme in a way that responds to local circumstances.
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Disabled Person's Parking Badge Scheme ("the Blue Badge Scheme") was introduced in 1971 to provide a national arrangement of on-street parking concessions for disabled people, allowing them to access goods and services more easily.
Consultation
2. The Department for Transport announced a series of proposed changes to the Blue Badge Scheme, as well as a strategic review of the scheme, on 26 February 2007. Today's consultation builds on this earlier work.
3. The final date for responses to be received by the Department for Transport is 17 April 2008. The full consultation document is available on http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/bluebadgereformstrategy/
4. The Department has set up stakeholder working groups to run in parallel with the consultation. The groups will include key people from disability organisations, with whom the Dept will work closely on developing proposals.
Review
5. In May 2007 an independent consultant, Rob Smith, was commissioned to conduct a review of the Blue Badge Scheme. He did this through a mixture of desk based research and stakeholder interviews.
6. The final report has been published today and is available on the http://www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyou/access/bluebadge/bluebadgeresearch/bluebadgefinaleligibility.pdf and addresses the following issues:
I. Eligibility (who should qualify for the Scheme?)
II. Concessions (which concessions should apply?)
III. Better administration (how can the Scheme be more consistently administered and enforced?) and;
IV. Choice & alternatives to the Scheme
7. The report was independently commissioned and does not necessarily reflect government policy. The findings have been considered as part of the preliminary formulation of the comprehensive Blue Badge reform strategy.
8. The Department's http://www.dft.gov.uk/transportforyou/access/bluebadge/bluebadgereform/DfTresponsetostrategicreview.pdf to the review reflects our preliminary thinking and is designed to help us to modernise the Scheme in the within the context of current transport policy; making it more consistently administered, tougher on fraud and easier to understand.
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Department for Transport
Website: http://www.dft.gov.uk
