Good morning and thank you, convener. My apologies for any mix-up with the timing. We are delighted to be here.
Over the years, parking has become an emotive subject, be it on-street, private, footway or disabled parking, and there have been calls to either review or legislate on the matter. It is important to remember that parking can be and is a positive aspect in many people’s lives. The provision of disabled parking bays has improved access for disabled people to day-to-day activities that non-disabled people often take for granted. Misusing such bays impacts not just on access but on disabled people’s ability to play an active and full role in our society.
As Jackie Baillie MSP explained during the evidence sessions, the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009 seeks to make all advisory disabled parking bays enforceable, and requires local authorities to promote the proper use of such bays. I believe that the 2009 act has improved the situation by ensuring that all on-street disabled parking bays are enforceable, along with those that are found in local authority off-street car parks. However, I fully acknowledge that the bill has not fully achieved its aims in relation to enforcement of disabled bays in privately owned car parks, such as those controlled by supermarket chains.
The evidence that has been provided by local authorities in response to the committee’s post-legislative scrutiny, and to my officials via the annual reports, calls for changes in a number of areas, including amending section 8 of the act to remove the need for local authorities to contact landowners and businesses to request agreement to enforce disabled parking bays on landowners’ behalf; removing the need for developing, consulting and publishing traffic regulation orders to make disabled parking bays enforceable, which would reduce the cost impact on councils; and making the reporting requirements for local authorities less onerous.
Since receiving powers under the Scotland Act 2016 to legislate on parking, we have been working with representatives from the parking industry, local authorities, disability organisations, the business community and the motoring industry in the development and publication of our public consultation paper.
This is the first time that the Scottish Government has been able to undertake such a detailed review of parking in Scotland. As such, we are using this opportunity to review a range of parking issues—not just the issue of footway parking, which is hugely important, but how parking is managed and enforced across the country, including disabled parking.
As the committee is aware, since the introduction of the 2009 act there has been considerable change in the parking landscape. We now have 18 local authorities in Scotland with decriminalised parking enforcement powers. In addition, there has been legislation to expand the eligibility criteria for a blue badge, as well as powers to tackle misuse of the blue badge scheme. However, I acknowledge that we still have a long way to go to ensure that all disabled parking, on-street or off-street, is managed and enforced in a consistent manner. That is why I am committed to working with local authorities on this issue, as well as with the United Kingdom Government and, if necessary, other devolved Administrations.
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My officials will be setting up a stakeholder working group, consisting of parking managers from all local authorities in Scotland, to explore how we can resolve the issues that have been raised in evidence to the committee. The findings from our own consultation process, which closes at the end of this month, and the committee’s post-legislative scrutiny process will help to inform our next steps.
As always, convener, I am happy to take questions.