Meeting of the Parliament 19 August 2014
I am more than happy to consider that further. We have done a great deal of work, because we know how important the issue is. To put the matter in plain terms, some people who were eligible for the blue badge scheme and could passport into it automatically have been affected by the decisions and are asking why they have to be reassessed, for example. If there is anything further that we can do to ensure that the message is spread, we will certainly do it.
The first of the new criteria that we have included applies to those who do not receive PIP at the passporting rate and who are challenging that decision with the Department for Work and Pensions. The second new criterion ensures that those who were in receipt of a lifetime or indefinite higher-rate DLA award will continue to retain passporting entitlement to a blue badge, irrespective of the outcome of the PIP application.
In addition, we have also mitigated the well-reported delays to the PIP assessment process by ensuring that those who have applied for PIP but have not received their PIP decision by the time that their higher-rate DLA ends will continue to passport to the blue badge scheme.
In the white paper, we have made it clear that, if we are elected as the first Government of an independent Scotland, we will halt the further roll-out of personal independence payments. That will allow the first Government of an independent Scotland to design a welfare system that meets Scotland’s needs—especially the needs of the people who need to access the blue badge scheme.
We want the right people to have a badge. We also want a scheme that is fit for purpose. To go back to Dennis Robertson’s speech, without the strengthened enforcement powers that the bill provides, disabled badge holders might not reap the benefits to which they are entitled. That is the real point at issue. We need to ensure that those who need a blue badge are the ones who get it.
Christine Grahame raised an issue about supermarkets. As Mark Griffin rightly says, the Government has no control over that, as those car parks are private spaces. However, I wrote to the supermarkets some months ago to ask them to look into the matter to see what more they could do to protect the rights of people with disabilities. I think that we have all had the experience of going to a supermarket whose disabled bays are completely full and seeing someone with a disability having to struggle further than they should have to, given that it was perfectly clear that some people who were using those bays did not require them. If, as I suspect that it will be, the bill is passed, I undertake to write again to the supermarkets to draw their attention to what we have done and to see whether there is any way in which we can strengthen the situation in that regard.
Once again, I thank Dennis Robertson for the work that he has done and the way in which he has brought people together and dealt with the concerns that have been evident throughout the process.