Henry Smith has given his support to Brighton MP, Simon Kirby's Private Members' Bill to amend the Blue Badge legislation.

Henry commented:  

“I know that many disabled people in Crawley are frustrated when they cannot park because someone is misusing a badge. This Bill will clamp down on those individuals who abuse the system and deprive legitimate badge holders from parking.  Pretending to be disabled for financial gain is deeply offensive to people with genuine disabilities.

“The changes contained within the Bill will improve the credibility of the scheme and result in the greater availability of parking spaces, protecting the scheme for genuine badge holders who have the most need. 

“Having supported the case for awarding a Blue Badge to a local social care organisation recently, I am aware that there has been confusion between the local Council and Whitehall with respect to the necessary criteria for Badge ownership.  This confusion has slowed down genuine applications for Blue Badges and disrupted local care services in the support they offer for disabled people.  This Bill will remove the requirement for the Government to publish the full badge specification in regulations.

“I’m pleased to be supporting this Bill, which will benefit many genuine blue badge holders up and down the country." 

Simon Kirby's "Disabled Persons' Parking Badges Bill", which will receive its second reading in the chamber of the House of Commons on 6 July, has already attracted cross party support, with the list of supporters including Labour MP David Blunkett and Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Lloyd.

The aim of the Bill is to protect people who genuinely need a blue badge by clamping down on the misuse of badges by those individuals abusing the current scheme. The National Fraud Authority estimates it to be costing local authorities up to £46 million per annum. The Bill would introduce a number of measures to tackle this problem.