Meeting of the Parliament 19 August 2014
I pay tribute to Dennis Robertson for introducing the bill, which I hope will receive unanimous support. Like many other members, I realise that it is not always easy to steer a member’s bill through Parliament. As well as paying tribute to Mr Robertson, we should acknowledge the work that his staff have done in getting the bill to this stage.
I thank my colleagues on the Local Government and Regeneration Committee for being as assiduous and collegiate as they normally are, and I thank all the folks who gave evidence and took part in the written consultations and the events in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
We should also recognise the efforts of the Transport Scotland officials who have been working on the issue, and who brought a huge amount of common sense and gumption to the task of achieving an entirely workable approach. Many members, particularly those who have served on local authorities, know how difficult it can be to deal with blue badge issues. The bill will strengthen our hand and ensure that we have a much fairer system.
Mr Robertson’s proposal was for
“a Bill to strengthen the Blue Badge Scheme enforcement powers, including powers to cancel and confiscate badges in certain circumstances, and to provide an appeals process for applicants when their Blue Badge application is refused on eligibility grounds.”
The commonsense proposal was supported by 41 members of the Scottish Parliament: 33 Scottish National Party members, seven Labour members and Jean Urquhart MSP. I hope that members who could not sign the proposal or who chose not to do so will unite behind a bill that has been pretty well scrutinised and has produced good options.
I talked about the common sense of the debate about and scrutiny of the proposal. As we have gone through the process, we have seen a number of additions—the minister mentioned two working groups, which continue to do good work. I am sure that we will monitor the effects of the bill after it has been passed.
Misuse of badges has always been a problem. As Dennis Robertson rightly pointed out, some people feel that it is kind of all right to do certain things with blue badges. Mr Robertson mentioned somebody being a bit late for work. We heard of an example in Aberdeen of a home help using a blue badge so that she could get nearer to her client’s door. Those things are wrong, and we must get that right in the future. We heard from the City of Edinburgh Council that between 52 and 70 per cent of all badges that are on display are being misused. That is a horrifying figure. We must recognise that every single abuse might be taking away somebody’s independence, which is wrong.
I pay tribute to Dennis Robertson for bringing forward the proposal, and I hope that everybody will unite behind the bill at decision time.