Blue Badge Scheme
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-10-29)

CYC Internal Audit Reports 2017. These reports are presented to the Audit and Governance Committee for consideration, and are also included with the agenda papers for the [relevant meetings](http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=437). 

Reports are also grouped together by calendar year and published at this York Open Data platform. Reports for other years are available at the [__CYC Internal Audit Reports__](https://data.yorkopendata.org/dataset?q=internal+audit&sort=score+desc%2C+metadata_modified+desc) datasets.

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Blue Badge Scheme 
City of York Council 
Internal Audit Report 2016/17 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Business Unit: Customer & Corporate Services  
Responsible Officer: Assistant Director, Customers and Employees   
Service Manager: Head of Business Support 
Date Issued: 24 July 2017 
Status: Final 
Reference: 11760/002 
 
Overall Audit Opinion 
High Assurance 
Actions 
1 
0 
P3 
P2 
P1 
0 

 
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Summary and Overall Conclusions 
 
Introduction 
The Blue Badge Scheme was introduced to help disabled people with severe mobility problems to access goods and services by allowing them 
to park close to their destination either as a driver or as a passenger. Parking for Blue Badge users may also be at a reduced cost or free of 
charge. 
 
It is a national scheme, although local authorities are responsible for much of the administration of the scheme, including processing applications. 
In 2015-16 the council received approximately 3000 Blue Badge applications.  
 
Objectives and Scope of the Audit 
The purpose of this audit was to provide assurance to management that procedures and controls within the system will ensure that: 
 
• 
Procedures are in line with good practice guidance  
• 
Payments for Blue Badges are appropriately managed 
• 
Applications are processed and authorised correctly within the required timescales 
• 
Blue Badges are subject to an appropriate renewals process  
 
Key Findings 
The authority has in place procedures to process new applications, renewals and payments as well as monitoring any issues that may be 
occurring. Procedures within the authority are based on national good practice guidance. During the course of the audit the service implemented 
a formal appeals process for rejected applications and reduced the duplication in the recording of applications when the council changed from 
Frameworki to Mosaic for Adult Social Care cases.  
 
The finding in the report relates to the contract for further assessments. 
Overall Conclusions 
It was found that the arrangements for managing risk were very good. An effective control environment appears to be in operation. Our overall 
opinion of the controls within the system at the time of the audit was that they provided High Assurance.  
 
 

 
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1 Contract for further assessments 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
There is no contract in place for additional assessments 
The authority may not be able to address issues if they occur 
Findings 
There is no current contract in place for the further assessments undertaken by the NHS where the application cannot be fully assessed in 
house by council staff.  
 
The service are working with the council’s procurement department to ensure that the contract is correctly procured and put in place. 
Agreed Action 1.1 
The service is currently working with Procurement to finalise an agreement with a provider 
for the service. This has been done through a framework City of York Council have in place 
with another local authority.  
Priority 
3 
Responsible Officer 
Business Support 
Operations Manager 
Timescale 
1st Sept 2017 
 
 

 
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Annex 1 
Audit Opinions and Priorities for Actions 
Audit Opinions 
Audit work is based on sampling transactions to test the operation of systems. It cannot guarantee the elimination of fraud or 
error. Our opinion is based on the risks we identify at the time of the audit. 
 
Our overall audit opinion is based on 5 grades of opinion, as set out below. 
 
Opinion 
Assessment of internal control 
High Assurance 
Overall, very good management of risk. An effective control environment appears to be in operation. 
Substantial 
Assurance 
Overall, good management of risk with few weaknesses identified.  An effective control environment is in 
operation but there is scope for further improvement in the areas identified. 
Reasonable 
Assurance 
Overall, satisfactory management of risk with a number of weaknesses identified.  An acceptable control 
environment is in operation but there are a number of improvements that could be made. 
Limited Assurance 
Overall, poor management of risk with significant control weaknesses in key areas and major 
improvements required before an effective control environment will be in operation. 
No Assurance 
Overall, there is a fundamental failure in control and risks are not being effectively managed.  A number of 
key areas require substantial improvement to protect the system from error and abuse. 
 
Priorities for Actions 
Priority 1 
A fundamental system weakness, which presents unacceptable risk to the system objectives and requires urgent 
attention by management. 
Priority 2 
A significant system weakness, whose impact or frequency presents risks to the system objectives, which needs to 
be addressed by management. 
Priority 3 
The system objectives are not exposed to significant risk, but the issue merits attention by management. 
 

 
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