Part of Disabled Persons' Parking Badges Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at on 5 September 2012.
Stephen Hammond
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I am delighted that the Committee is considering my hon. Friend’s Bill today. He is to be congratulated on getting it to this stage and on drawing support from both sides of the House. The Bill will play an important part in the reform of the blue badge disabled parking scheme. It will help to tackle the abuses of the system that have grown up. Reform is needed; those abuses have damaged the lives of disabled people and cost local authorities millions of pounds.
I thank the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse for his kind words of welcome. We enjoyed sparring when he was in this place and I was in that place, and I look forward to that again now. I also welcome his words of support for my hon. Friend’s Bill.
I echo, as I am sure the whole Committee will want to, the words of the right hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East about Lord Morris and the work that he did in recognising what was necessary to improve access for disabled people and to make their lives more successful; I am sure that the Committee will want to put that on the record.
My hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown has given an excellent summary of the Bill. However, I think that the Government will wish to put on record that Clause 1, in particular, is important because it ensures absolutely that we can take action to prevent forgery and provide greater flexibility, so that we can keep up with any fraudsters trying to replicate the shape and form of the badge.
The hon. Member for Arfon was right to talk about clause 4. It is an important part of the Bill, and allows enforcement officers to perform quick and easy validity checks. It also ensures that enforcement officers who are performing other functions can run this check alongside their normal obligations.
It may help my hon. Friend if I answer the questions put from the Opposition front bench. First, the Government, and I think my hon. Friend, believe that there will be no financial consequences for local authorities as a result of the measure. Secondly, because I have made those remarks about clause 4, I hope the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse will recognise that it would not necessarily be appropriate for central Government to dictate the training that is necessary. The civil enforcement officers who will be undertaking those tasks routinely undertake similar tasks, so the Government do not feel that it is necessary to prescribe training—it would be wrong to do so. Local authorities could easily do this as a quick and easy extension to what they already do.
The hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse raised the issue of the right of appeal. First, I should put on record that there was never a right of appeal to the Secretary of State on eligibility criteria, but there was a right of appeal for when a badge had been withdrawn. The Government consulted on that issue and found no opposition to the removal of that right of appeal. Secondly, as my hon. Friend said, there are only two or three such appeals each year. Given that the scheme is operated by local government, it would be more logical and consistent for any appeals that are necessary to be heard by a local government officer.
The Government welcome the Bill. We are pleased to support it, and we congratulate my hon. Friend.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The House of Commons.
The first bench on either side of the House of Commons, reserved for ministers and leaders of the principal political parties.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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