Freedom of Information Request reveals disappointing insights into local authority’s attitudes towards Blue Badge parking
In February 2022 Disabled Motoring UK submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to all local authorities responsible for issuing the Blue Badge in the UK. The responses provided some interesting results.
A total of 207 authorities were contacted in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. FOI requests have a set time scale of 20 working days for the organisation to respond, however many stated that this may take longer due to Covid restrictions. In total we gave local authorities 8 weeks to respond and in this time scale we received back 180 responses. Therefore, this data is based on the 180 responses DMUK received.
The results showed that there are currently 2,710,752 valid Blue Badges issued across the UK. (Our response rate was 87% so a rough estimate for the total including the 27 authorities that didn’t respond would be 3.12 million Blue Badges in circulation in the UK). Total applications over the three year period (Blue Badges are usually valid for 3 years) from 2019-2021 was 2,897,982 meaning that 187,230 applicants were turned down for a Blue Badge, this equates to 6.5% of Blue Badge applications. It is worth noting that there were vast differences between local authorities in numbers of applications that were turned down. Some local authorities approved nearly 100% of applications they received while the London Borough of Redbridge had the lowest approval rating with only 66% applications approved in 2021. Eligibility guidelines are issued centrally from Department for Transport (DfT) to local authorities to use so that they are issuing Blue Badges to the right people. However, these statistics show that there maybe big differences across the country in their interpretation and getting a Blue Badge becomes a ‘postcode lottery’.
Hidden Disabilities
In August 2019 the eligibility criteria in England changed to include people with hidden disabilities. This change did not come in across the UK, but some local authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were issuing and recording this data. The FOI request showed that there are 66,612 people across the country who receive a Blue Badge purely because of a hidden disability. When the criteria changed in 2019 DMUK was concerned that there would be flood of new Blue Badge holders and this would have negative consequences for Blue Badge holders as a whole because there would be more pressure on an already over-subscribed parking provision. It seems to us that this figure shows that the new criteria is being administered in the right way and we’ve not seen anywhere near the increase in Blue Badge holders that we predicted because of it.
Abuse and Misuse
The FOI request asked questions about abuse of the scheme. DMUK was alarmed to see that many local authorities do not record reports of misuse and abuse of the scheme. Only 57% of authorities that responded recorded this data and those that did seemed to have very few reports. It makes us wonder that even those that do record this data aren’t taking it seriously enough. According to our FOI request there were only 4815 reports of misuse across the entire UK in 2021. We’d encourage anybody who feels that a Blue Badge may be being abused to get in touch with their local authority so that the problem of misuse and abuse is kept on their radar.
Some local authorities are doing great work in enforcing scheme and holding abusers of it to account. Our FOI request revealed that 585 prosecutions took place in 2021 totalling in £121,507 in fines for abusers and costs totalling £146,661.35.
Blue Badge Parking Review
DMUK asked local authorities when they last reviewed Blue Badge parking provision in their area. These results were shocking as only 46% of authorities (95 authorities) had carried out any kind of review in the last 10 years. For 18 authorities it had been over 10 years since a review had taken place with Bury Borough Council reporting that the last time they reviewed Blue Badge parking was in 1993 - 29 years ago! More alarming than this is that 43 authorities report never carrying out a review of Blue Badge parking provision. The remaining 51 authorities that responded claim they do not hold data of when/if a review has taken place.
Heidi Turner, DMUK Director of Communications and Campaigns, said: “Carrying out the Freedom of Information request to all local authorities in the UK has given the charity some valuable data on Blue Badges and disabled parking across the country. We continue to be disappointed by the lack of enforcement of the scheme and would welcome any local authority to get in touch with the charity if they want to decrease levels of abuse in their area. With numbers of Blue Badge holders increasing it is clear to us that all local authorities need to carry out a full review of their Blue Badge parking provision so they can ensure that demand for parking is met in their local area.”
DMUK would like to thank all local authorities who responded to our FOI request.
Take action now
We have a new template letter available for members and public to download. This letter can be sent to your MP to ask them what is being done in your area to tackle Blue Badge parking abuse.
Further information on contacting your MP can be found by visiting www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/
