A third of councils in England do not have a policy in place to prosecute people for Blue Badge fraud, new figures have revealed today.
The report, published by the Department for Transport, shows there were 1,432 prosecutions in 2018/19 for the misuse of the permits, up by nearly 18% on the previous year.
The annual survey also shows 33% of councils do not have a policy in place to prosecute fraudsters, although 65% of these are planning on implementing one in the future.
The report added: ‘Of the authorities which had a policy for prosecuting, 61% prosecuted individuals for misuse of Blue Badges. The remaining 39% had no prosecutions despite having a policy.’
Nearly all the prosecutions (99%) were due to someone using another’s person’s permit.
The latest figures show 2.29 million motorists in England have a Blue Badges, which is 4.1% of the population.