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Blue
Badge Parking Scheme
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Ensuring fair allocation of badges
The following measures will be implemented to help ensure that badges are issued
fairly against a background of rising demand and that the scheme remains sustainable
in the long term for those disabled people who rely on it in the most:
| Reform
measure |
Earliest
delivery |
Transfer
control of current NHS spend on badge eligibility assessments to local authorities
Publication of non statutory guidance on scheme administration and enforcement
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April
2011
May/June 2011
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| Amend
legislation to require wider use of independent mobility assessments to determine
eligibility, including where previously that assessment was carried out by a GP
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2012
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| Extend
eligibility to more disabled children under 3 with specific medical conditions
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May
2011
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| Provide
continuous automatic entitlement to severely disabled service personnel and veterans
with specific tariffs of award under the Armed Forces Compensation scheme |
May
2011
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Amend
residency requirements for disabled Armed Forces personnel and their families
posted overseas on UK bases, so that they can apply for a badge
Further research to inform a decision on whether or not to extend eligibility
to people with a severe temporary disability (lasting at least one year)
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2013/14
Decision to be taken later in 2011
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Delivering efficiency savings and improving customer services
The following measures will be implemented to help local authorities improve service
delivery and achieve efficiency savings, and to improve customer services for
badge holders:
| Reform
measure |
Earliest
delivery |
Establish
with local authorities a common service improvement project (BBIS) that will deliver
operational efficiency savings. This project will be self-funding and should deliver
efficiency savings of between £6.5 and £20 million per year.
This project will improve customer services and establish an on-line application
facility. It should result in faster, more automatic renewals for people whose
circumstances do not change between renewal periods |
System
go live end 2011
Early 2012
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Improved and effective prevention of abuse and enforcement
The following measures will be implemented to help prevent abuse from happening
in the first place and to deal with rising levels of fraud and abuse
| Reform
measure |
Earliest
delivery |
| Introduce
a new badge design that is harder to copy, forge and alter. Implement (via the
common service improvement project) new arrangements for printing and distribution
to prevent fraud and effectively monitor cancelled, lost and stolen badges
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End
2011
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The
common service improvement project (BBIS) will enable local authorities to detect
abuse more effectively. Officers will be able to check details of new badges issued
anywhere in England.
Introduce new or amended powers for local authorities to tackle abuse and fraud.
In particular to:
• extend the grounds available to local authorities to refuse to issue and
to withdraw badges
• provide local authorities with a power to cancel badges that have been
lost, stolen, have expired, or have been withdrawn for mis-use
• provide local authority authorised officers with a power to recover, on-the-spot,
badges that have been cancelled or misused
• amend existing legislation to clarify wrongful use of a badge and the powers
to inspect badges
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Early
2012
End 2011
2013/14
2013/14
2013/14
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The Badge fee
The following measure will be implemented to enable local authorities to cover
administrative costs more appropriately and to enable the delivery of the new
badge design
| Reform
measure |
Earliest
delivery |
| Change
legislation to raise the maximum fee that local authorities can charge for a badge
from £2 to £10. This will pay for the new badge design and it enable the common
service improvement project (BBIS). Badge holders should, in return, benefit from
improved accessibility as abuse is reduced. |
End
2011
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What we are not doing
The following measures will not be implemented:
Increasing or decreasing the length of time that badge holders can park on yellow
lines (from the current 3 hours); or changing it so that badge holders, for example,
could not park on double-yellow lines; or extending the scheme so that it includes
off-street parking or includes the four local authorities covered by the 'London
Concession'. No changes are being made to the concession itself.
Further extending eligibility, for example, to those with cognitive or behavioural
impairments, those with colitis, Crohn's disease or similar conditions (or those
with a temporary disability of less than one year).
Introducing a centrally administered scheme.
Raising the maximum fee to £20 (as is the case in Scotland) or removing the maximum
that a local authority may charge. It was felt, based on consultation, that £10
would be the most appropriate fee.
Amending primary legislation to make it mandatory for all local authorities to
charge the same fee. This was rejected as it does not support the localism agenda.
Charging the fee on application for rather than on issue of a badge, so that unsuccessful
applicants would also have to pay the fee. This was rejected as it was felt to
be unfair.
Other options in relation to new or amended enforcement powers that were not considered
proportionate.
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