Blue Badge scheme

Blue Badge Scheme

Blue Badge Reform

The government has today made an announcement on the most significant reform to the Blue Badge scheme in forty years. These include:

• Providing local authorities with an on-the-spot power to recover badges that have been cancelled and misused; 
• Shared administration between authorities - including an on-line application facility - resulting in faster renewals, reduced abuse and operational efficiency savings of up to £20 million a year;
• Wider use of independent mobility assessments to determine eligibility, including where previously that assessment was carried out by a GP; and support for this by giving local authorities control of National Health Service spend on Blue Badge assessments;
• The replacement of handwritten badges with standard electronic ones which are harder to alter and forge;
• Extending the scheme to more disabled children under three years of age; providing continuous automatic entitlement to a badge to severely disabled Armed Forces personnel and veterans; and removing residency requirements for disabled service personnel and their families who are posted overseas on UK bases.

The changes will start to be introduced from April this year.  This can be found on the Blue Badge web pages of the DFT website

The Written Ministerial Statement can be found on the DFT website.

The Press Notice,

Also published on the website today, are the responses to the DFT's 2010 consultation
The Department received 225 responses and we thank those who responded.

We have published 'Frequently Asked Questions' and a summary of reforms

The Blue Badge Team
Department for Transport

The Blue Badge scheme provides a range of both national and european parking concessions for disabled people who have severe mobility problems and face difficulties in using transport.

The scheme is designed to help them travel independently, as either a driver or a passenger, by allowing them to park close to their destination. If you know of anyone mis-using a Blue Badge, please complete our Blue Badge Misuse form.

The concessions only apply to on-street parking. They do not apply to off-street car parks, such as supermarket car parks, or privately owned roads, such as those at airports.