Overview of the Blue Badge scheme, including the increasing numbers of badge holders, reforms and improvements of the scheme. Presented on behalf of DfT by Sheenagh Reynolds, Assistant Director of Digital at DCLG at the DVLA Discovery Day held on 2 July 2014 at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

1. Local
Digital
Campaign
Blue Badge
Overview
#LocalDigital
@LocalDigitalGov
Sheenagh Reynolds, Assistant Director, Digital, DVLA
– on behalf of DfT

2. Blue Badge
Scheme

3. Blue Badge Scheme: Background
• The number of badge holders has tripled in the past 20 years
• Currently over 2.5m severely disabled badge holders who receive the following
on-street parking benefits:
• free parking on single or double yellow lines for up to 3 hours (except
where there is a ban on loading/unloading);
• free parking (usually without time limit) at on-street parking meters and
pay-and-display machines;
• free parking in disabled parking bays (usually without time limit)

4. Blue Badge Scheme: Background
• Badge holders can access other concessions e.g.
• most local authorities issue badge holders automatically with a
concessionary bus pass
• badge holders in London are exempt from the congestion charge if they
register their details in advance with the operator
• many operators of tolled bridges and crossings provide payment
exemptions for Blue Badge holders
• 75% of Blue Badge holders have said that they would go out less often if they
did not have a Badge
• 64% said they would be more reliant on friends and family members

5. Blue Badge Scheme: Eligibility
• People are automatically eligible for a Blue Badge if they:
• Receive the higher rate mobility component of Disability Living Allowance;
• Receive a Personal Independence Payment because they cannot walk
further than 50m;
• Are registered blind;
• Receive a war pension or an Armed Forces Compensation scheme award
because they have considerable difficulty walking.
• People who do not qualify automatically may still be issued with a badge if they
have a permanent and substantial disability that causes inability to walk or very
considerable difficulty in walking.

6. Blue Badge Scheme: Reforms
Improvements include:
• requiring the use of independent mobility assessments to ensure a
consistent approach towards assessing eligibility;
• new powers to enable local authorities to undertake on-street badge
recovery where badges are being misused;
• introduction of a new, fraud-resistant badges being issued from January
2012 onwards;

7. Blue Badge Scheme: Reforms
The launch of a single national database of all badge holders and their key details
to:
• Prevent multiple and fraudulent applications;
• Enable quick and easy validity checks by enforcement officers from anywhere
in the country, no matter which local authority has issued the badge;
• Print, supply and distribute a new high-security Blue Badge design;
• Enable local authorities to share services and achieve economies of scale.

8. Blue Badge Scheme: Reforms
• Since 1 April 2012, the Government has required that where a medical opinion
is needed to determine eligibility, the local authority uses an independent
mobility assessor such as an occupational therapist or physiotherapist.
• This view is supported by disabled people’s user groups and by the Transport
Select Committee which reported that using an applicant’s GP to assess
eligibility is likely to produce a bias in favour of approving the application.
• In addition the Government has brought new legislation into force which
means that local authorities can withdraw a badge following one conviction
for misuse (as opposed to 3 convictions formerly); and local authorities can
now seize badges that are being misused on-street.

9. Blue Badge Scheme: Further Information
• The Department for Transport is revising the guidance it issues to local
authorities on the application of the Blue Badge scheme, to take into account
recent legislative changes.
• In October 2013 the Government brought the Disabled Persons’ Parking
Badges Act 2013 into force.
• The Guidance will be updated to advise local authorities about this new
power.
• Of most interest to local authorities is the new power for their on-street
enforcement officers to seize badges that are being misused and to operate in
plain clothes.
• DfT hope to be in a position to publish the revised Guidance later year.

10. Blue Badge Scheme: For Further Information Contact
Maclean Okotie
DfT Traffic Division
Email: maclean.okotie@dft.gsi.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 7944 4443