Councils in England have been urged to crack down on the misuse of blue badge parking permits – legitimate and counterfeit – as the proportion of people holding them has reached one in 15.

The AA called for more to be done to detect offences such as people using fake or stolen badges.

The permits, which must be renewed every three years, help people with disabilities or health conditions to access shops and services by enabling them to park closer.

In London, they also exempt holders from having to pay the £18 daily congestion charge.

The latest Department for Transport (DfT) data shows that 3.07 million blue badges were held as of 31 March last year, with more than 6% of the estimated 46 million adults in England holding one.

Edmund King, the AA’s president, said: “The blue badge scheme is a mobility lifeline for millions of legitimate users and their families.

“Our concern is not the absolute number of badges issued but the estimates that up to one in five badges may be used by someone other than the holder or authorised user.

“Fraud is an issue which can include family misuse, use after death, counterfeit badges and theft and resale of badges.

“We would welcome a crackdown on illegitimate use of badges to safeguard the deserving users.”

While there are no recent figures for the cost of blue badge fraud in the UK, the National Fraud Authority, a now defunct Home Office agency, estimated it to be £46m per year in 2011.

The DfT data showed the English regions with the highest and lowest percentages of badge holders were the north-east (6.1%) and London (3.5%) respectively.

In 2019, the eligibility criteria for blue badges was extended beyond people with visible disabilities, to include those with non-visible conditions such as Parkinson’s, dementia and epilepsy.

More than two-fifths of the badges issued in 2024/25 were awarded without further assessment.

Depending on the location, the permits often enable holders to park free of charge in pay-and-display bays and for up to three hours on single and double yellow lines.

Several councils have reported prosecutions for blue badge misuse in recent months.

Croydon council in south London said in January that seven offenders were ordered to pay a total of nearly £6,000 in a combination of fines, court costs and a victim surcharge.

The cases involved badges which were stolen, counterfeit or belonging to someone else.

Last September, Oxfordshire county council reported two blue badge misuse convictions, including a man caught using his dead grandmother’s badge.

A Local Government Association spokesperson said: “Although the vast majority of badges are used correctly, there is a small minority who fraudulently use other people’s, either to save money by parking in disabled bays or through laziness, depriving someone with a genuine need.

“To help councils win the fight against blue badge fraud, residents must keep tipping councils off about people they suspect are illegally using a badge, bearing in mind people’s need for a badge might not be obvious.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “Exploitation and abuse of the blue badge scheme is completely unacceptable and is a criminal offence.

“Local authorities have been given improved powers to crack down on fraud and misuse in their area, and work closely with the police.”

The Press Association contributed to this report