The latest Blue Badge statistics released from the Department for Transport (DfT) show a 49% decrease in prosecutions for fraud and misuse of the scheme. Only 698 prosecutions took place between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021, compared with the previous year’s figure of 1,429 prosecutions.
A report from Disabled Motoring UK says that the number of Blue Badge holders has also decreased by 3.8% with a total of 2.35 million Blue Badge holders in England on 31st March 2021, that is 92,000 fewer Blue Badge holders. Between 1 April 2020 and 31st March 2021 only 824,000 Blue Badges were issued by local authorities, this is 142,000 fewer than the previous year and a fall of 14.7%.
The fall in prosecutions and general numbers of Blue Badges has been partially attributed to repercussions of the Covid pandemic. The DfT stated: “The drop in prosecuted badges may relate to the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on citizen behaviour, local authority enforcement practices, and availability of resources.”
Of the 698 prosecution that did take place in 2020/21, 454 (65%)of them took place in London. Drilling down further 119 were in one particular borough, Lambeth. That equates to 17% of all prosecutions taking place in one borough in London. This means that if you live outside London you are very unlikely to see any enforcement of the Blue Badge scheme.