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Written Question
Parking: Disability
Monday 5th June 2023

Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance his Department has provided to (a) local authorities, (b the police and (c) hospitals on the enforcement of rules relating to parking spaces for the disabled.

Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

Currently, both local authorities and private parking operators providing parking facilities are required under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people and to provide them equal opportunities to access services.

In respect of local authority parking, the Secretary of State’s ‘Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities in England on Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions’ sets out the parking enforcement framework for the 98 percent of English local authorities that have acquired civil parking enforcement powers. The police have no powers to enforce parking contraventions within these local authority areas, except at safety-critical pedestrian crossings, and the Department does not issue advice to the police.

Local authorities have powers to safeguard parking places for disabled people and the Department has published ‘Blue Badge scheme local authority guidance (England)’.

Although off-street private car parks are required to make reasonable adjustments under the above-mentioned equalities legislation, the form those adjustments take are up to individual operators, who can best judge what is appropriate within their car parks.  Often private car park operators provide Blue Badge spaces in their car parks but there is no legal basis for this and, as such, they are essentially advisory.

In respect of hospitals, the Department for Health and Social Care guidance ‘NHS car-parking management: environment and sustainability, 2015’ notes the importance of providers enforcing Blue Badge bays and dedicated Blue Badge car parks to ensure their use is not abused by non-Blue Badge holders. Enforcement is a matter for the relevant NHS Trust.

Written Question
Roads: Oxford-Cambridge Arc
Tuesday 30th May 2023

Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has received the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Roads Connectivity Study commissioned by his Department.

Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

We are expecting to be in receipt of the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Roads Connectivity Study shortly.

Written Question
Blue Badge Scheme
Tuesday 7th March 2023

Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for applicants to the Blue Badge scheme who have irreversible medical conditions; and whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of exempting such applicants from the requirement to undertake a renewal process for their Blue Badge.

Answered by Richard Holden - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

Applications to the Blue Badge scheme are not dependent upon condition but are based on the need of the applicant to park closer to their destination. People with long term medical conditions could receive a badge if they meet the eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for administering the scheme locally and all local authority administrators have the discretion to add a ‘not for reassessment’ marker to individual Blue Badge records, including for applicants with long term conditions.

Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 08 Nov 2021
HGV Driving Licences

"I commend both my hon. Friend the Minister for proposing some measures, and the shadow spokesman, the hon. Member for Ilford South (Sam Tarry), for asking some very serious and sensible questions about some of the issues, and I do hope that the Minister will respond to a couple of …..."
Richard Fuller - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Jun 2021
East West Rail Route Consultation: North East Bedfordshire

"The purpose of this evening’s Adjournment debate is to discuss the East West Rail consultation and North East Bedfordshire. I wish to draw the Minister’s attention to the flaws caused by the consultation process for the East West Rail route decision from Bedford to Cambridge. This is not a debate …..."
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Jun 2021
East West Rail Route Consultation: North East Bedfordshire

"The hon. Gentleman may or may not come back in—I think that is up to me to decide. Having granted him the opportunity to speak on behalf of his constituents, it is rather strange that he took the opportunity to quote—or misquote—my views to try to sow division on this …..."
Richard Fuller - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Jun 2021
East West Rail Route Consultation: North East Bedfordshire

"The Minister is absolutely right—he really has been on the front foot in engaging with people, as well as with me directly—but does he recognise that there is a difference between speaking to and listening? One concern that my constituents have is that in respect of some of the options …..."
Richard Fuller - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 28 Jun 2021
East West Rail Route Consultation: North East Bedfordshire

"I am encouraged that the Minister wishes to enlist me in support for East West Rail—that is on the concept—but he knows what motivates me, which is: do the numbers add up and does the thing add up logically? I have two fundamental concerns that he has not addressed, and …..."
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Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 24 Jun 2021
Oral Answers to Questions

" What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the 2019 East West Rail route consultation. ..."
Richard Fuller - View Speech

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Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 24 Jun 2021
Oral Answers to Questions

"Many of my constituents are appalled at the environmental damage that the East West Rail route will cause across Bedfordshire, and baffled that this 21st-century project will use a 19th-century fuel. Will my hon. Friend please look again at the environmental considerations that East West Rail has undertaken and bring …..."
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