It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I too congratulate the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown on bringing his Bill forward and securing time for it.

It is fair to say that the parking badge scheme has been of huge benefit to many thousands of people since its introduction. In fact, it has been transformational for the lives of disabled people, including a close relative of mine. As a young man, he was injured in a car crash, and without his blue badge he would effectively have been confined to his house, especially as our area is a tourist area; at peak times for tourist traffic, he would not have been able to go out, as he would not have been able to bring his car round. It is a wonderful scheme.

However, the misuse of the system is well known, and has, I am sorry to say, brought it into some disrepute. I am therefore glad to see this Bill, as a further step towards clarification and reform. I particularly welcome Clause 4, on enforcement, as the scheme is still being abused. If you will allow me, Mr Gray, I will relate a short story. About two weeks ago, I was crossing Y Maes, a large, open square in the middle of Caernarfon. There are a number of businesses in the square that people want to use, but there is no parking there except disabled parking bays. As I was passing those bays, a car pulled up, and somebody leapt out and literally sprinted into the Post Office. When I looked in the car’s front window, there it was—a blue badge. I could not hang about and upbraid the person, but there we have it: the system is still being abused. The sooner that sort of abuse is stopped, the better. Clause 4 will help local authorities to stamp it out, so I hope to see the measure implemented as soon as possible by my local authority and others.

I also hope that the continuing reform of the scheme will change the public perception that previous abuse of some parts of the scheme has engendered. It will, I hope, improve local authorities’ practice and perhaps engender positive change in their efforts to meet the needs of disabled people. Again, I include my own local authority in that, because we have particular problems with access to some areas in my Constituency. For example, the high street in the city of Bangor is closed off at times to people with disabilities because of enforcement problems. I hope that this change in the law will lead to better circumstances for disabled people in Bangor as well.

Finally, I have a minor point on clause 1, which refers to a prescribed form and inserts the words “in valid form”, referring to forms specified and approved by the Secretary of State. I hardly need say that, in Wales, I hope the badges will be bilingual, with the Welsh language first.