Disabled parking badges
These statistics present information on parking badges for disabled people in England (“Blue Badges”), including numbers of valid badges, applications and medical assessments. Blue Badges remain valid for three years so figures include rolling totals for badges on issue. The data are derived from the Department’s annual survey of local authorities issuing Blue Badges.
Latest Blue Badge Statistics
- On 31 March 2012, the estimated number of valid Blue Badges held was 2.62 million, a decrease of 1.1 per cent from the revised figure of 2.65 million for the previous year, which was the highest annual figure recorded. This is the first year to experience a decline since 1997.
- Of this total, 37 per cent were issued under the ‘without further assessment’ criteria, 62 per cent were issued under the ‘subject to further assessment’ criteria and 1 per cent were issued to organisations. These proportions have remained broadly similar since 1997.
- On 31 March 2012, 5.0 per cent of the English population held a valid Blue Badge, a decrease of 0.1 percentage points from 2011.
- In 2011/12, the estimated number of Blue Badges issued in England was 905 thousand, a decrease of 3.4 per cent from the previous year.
- The overall reduction in number of badges held between 2011 and 2012 has been driven by a decline of 4.3 per cent in the number of badges issued under the ‘subject to further assessment’ criteria in the last year.
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User feedback request
If you have any comments or queries about our statistics please let us know by completing the short online feedback form here or using the contact details below. We are keen to learn more about our users’ needs and experiences, to help us improve the usefulness of our statistics where possible.
Blue Badge Statistics beyond 2012
The Blue Badge Improvement Service (BBIS) is a new service that has been available to all local authorities in England since 1 January 2012. It provides a number of core services, including a central database of all Blue Badges on issue. The introduction of BBIS has implications for the future collection of Blue Badge statistics. Further information is available here:
Notes and guidance
The Blue Badge survey is not compulsory and in each year some authorities do not provide figures. Data provided by local authorities can also vary in quality between authorities and from year to year. Local authorities use different systems to record the data and follow different procedures and practices. This should be kept in mind when interpreting and using the statistics.
Where no data are available for an authority, data are estimated to produce aggregate totals for England or regional level. Due to difficulties in obtaining robust estimates in some cases, aggregate totals are not currently not produced for some questions. The nature of the estimation also means that minor revisions to back-data can occur, although trends are unlikely to be affected substantively.
National Statistics
National and regional figures are National Statistics. Figures at local authority level are less robust and are outside the scope of National Statistics. They are due to be assessed by the UK Statistics Authority in 2012.
Pre-release access lists
These lists detail the post holders that are given pre-release access for up to 24 hours prior to release.
Technical information
- Blue Badge survey documentation (PDF – 51 KB)
- Blue Badge survey questionnaire 2012 (PDF – 17 KB)
- Blue Badge survey questionnaire 2013 (PDF – 11 KB)
- Blue Badge survey guidance (PDF – 25 KB)
Background information
Contact us
- parking.data@dft.gsi.gov.uk
- Phone: 020 7944 3094
