UK Parliament petitions website

Last updated

United Kingdom Parliament petitions website
Parliament Petitions Home Page.png
Screenshot of the UK Parliament petitions website on 1 November 2022
Available in English
URL www.parliament.uk/get-involved/sign-a-petition/

The UK Parliament petitions website (e-petitions) allows members of the public to create and support petitions for consideration by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Although the UK Parliament's Petitions Committee considers all petitions which receive 100,000 signatures or more, there is no automatic parliamentary debate of those that pass this threshold. The Government will respond to all petitions with more than 10,000 signatures.

Contents

Process

Once a petition has been published on the website, it will be open to signatures for six months. [1]

On 1 November 2019, it was announced that all petitions were closed, including those that had been open for less than six months, because of the General Election. Petitions will not be re-opened after the election. When there is a general election, Parliament closes for a few weeks before the vote, for the election campaign. The petitions website is part of the official work of Parliament, so it has to stop too. [2]

Hosting and history of the website

The rights of petitioners and the power of the House of Commons to deal with petitions were expressed in resolutions of the Commons in 1669. The number of petitions being presented each year fell considerably in the twentieth century. In the early 2000s, both the Government and the House of Commons began to explore ways for the public to start and sign petitions electronically. [3]

The original e-petitions process was created by Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in November 2006 and hosted on the Downing Street website. Petitions were directed to government departments rather than MPs. Within the first six months, 2,860 active petitions were created and one received over one million signatures. [4] [5] [6] The process was suspended prior to the 2010 general election. [7]

The e-petitions were relaunched by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government in July 2011. Petitions backed by 100,000 signatures would now be considered for debate in Parliament and the website was moved to Directgov. [7] In the following year, a total of 36,000 petitions were submitted, attracting 6.4 million signatures. [8] After the closure of the Directgov website, the e-petitions were moved to the new GOV.UK website in October 2012. Just over 30 petitions were debated in Parliament over four years. By 2012, research by the Hansard Society and discussions in Parliament proposed: giving more time for petitions to be debated by MPs outside the main Commons chamber, the petitions site being taken over by Parliament, and a Petitions Committee being established to look at how e-petitions work and which ones should get parliamentary attention. [4] [9] [10] [11]

The House of Commons Procedure Committee produced a proposal in 2014 for e-petitions to be run jointly between the House of Commons and the Government and for the establishment of a new Petitions Committee to consider petitions for a debate in the House of Commons and scrutinise the Government's response. [12] [13] [14] The Petitions Committee was formed in 2015 during David Cameron's Conservative government and e-petitions were relaunched in July 2015 on the Parliament website. [15] [16]

Since 2015, the website is hosted by Unboxed, a digital consultancy from UK, [17] which was often quoted in the national news surrounding the very popular petition of March 2019 which crashed the website database [18] and forced the provider to scale up its hosting and tweak its code. [19]

Notable petitions

As of March 2019 the petition with the most signatures, with 6.1 million signatories, is a petition requesting the revocation of Article 50 and for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union. Started on 12 February 2019, it acquired more than 4 million signatures in 48 hours, between 21 March and 23 March 2019, following Prime Minister Theresa May's speech to the nation after the UK had requested that the Article 50 period be extended [20] and a public campaign by political groups. Internet traffic to the UK Parliament Petitions website was so high that the website crashed multiple times during the initial 24 hours of the petition's public campaign. [21] [18] [22]

The second most signed petition, with 4.2 million signatories, requested that Parliament hold another referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union if the result of the June 2016 "Brexit" referendum was "less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75%" (which threshold was not reached), but Parliament did not comply with the petitioners' request. [23] This petition had been started in May 2016 before the Brexit referendum, by a supporter of Brexit, who stated that he was unhappy that the petition was signed by supporters of Remain following the referendum result. [24]

A 2007 petition to oppose plans to introduce road pricing gathered 1.8 million signatures on an earlier version of the petitions website hosted on the Downing Street website. Prime Minister Tony Blair emailed all those who signed to inform them that trials would still go ahead. [5] [6]

In 2015, a petition called for legalisation of cannabis in the United Kingdom attracted more than 200,000 signatures and was debated in parliament. [25] [26]

A petition in December 2015 sought to ban Donald Trump from entering the UK; this gained more than 550,000 signatories and caused the website to crash. [27] [28] [29] A subsequent petition launched in January 2017 called for Donald Trump to be banned from an official state visit to the UK following his election as U.S. president, and received over 1.8 million signatures. [30] Neither petition was successful. [31]

In March 2016, a petition calling for provision of meningitis B vaccine to all children in the UK received over 800,000 signatures, and the issue was subsequently debated in Parliament. [32]

In October 2020, footballer Marcus Rashford began a petition that gathered 1 million signatures. The petition called for the end of child food poverty with three demands: expand access to Free School Meals, provide meals & activities during holidays to stop holiday hunger & increase the value of and expand the Healthy Start scheme. [33]

Petitions with more than 500,000 signatures

PetitionSignaturesStatusRequestYearOutcomeDetails
Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU (Petition 241584)6,103,056ClosedThe government repeatedly claims exiting the EU is 'the will of the people'. We need to put a stop to this claim by proving the strength of public support now, for remaining in the EU. A People's Vote may not happen - so vote now.2019FailedOn 26 March 2019 the Commons Petitions Committee approved the motion for debate in Parliament, along with two other motions from smaller petitions concerning Brexit, on 1 April 2019. At the time of this decision the number of signatures stood at 5.75 million. The government responded immediately following this announcement, and prior to the debate, rejecting calls to revoke Article 50. The Government's response: "This Government will not revoke Article 50. We will honour the result of the 2016 referendum and work with Parliament to deliver a deal that ensures we leave the European Union." The debate took place on 1 April 2019. [22]
EU Referendum Rules triggering a 2nd EU Referendum (Petition 131215)4,150,262ClosedWe the undersigned call upon HM Government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based a turnout less than 75% there should be another referendum.2016FailedRejected after debate in Parliament. with the Government response: "The European Union Referendum Act received Royal Assent in December 2015, receiving overwhelming support from Parliament. The Act did not set a threshold for the result or for minimum turnout."
Prevent Donald Trump from making a State Visit to the United Kingdom (Petition 171928)1,863,708ClosedDonald Trump should be allowed to enter the UK in his capacity as head of the US Government, but he should not be invited to make an official State Visit because it would cause embarrassment to Her Majesty the Queen.2017FailedRejected after debate in Parliament. with Government response "HM Government believes the President of the United States should be extended the full courtesy of a State Visit. We look forward to welcoming President Trump once dates and arrangements are finalised."
Oppose plans to introduce road pricing 1,792,116ClosedWe the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy.2007FailedRebuffed by Prime Minister Tony Blair; the trials went ahead although the schemes were later abandoned following strong public opposition.
Do not prorogue Parliament (Petition 269157)1,722,935ClosedParliament must not be prorogued or dissolved unless and until the Article 50 period has been sufficiently extended or the UK's intention to withdraw from the EU has been cancelled.2019FailedBoris Johnson's request to prorogue parliament for five weeks from mid-September was approved by the Queen. But was later ruled unlawful by the UK Supreme Court.
End child food poverty – no child should be going hungry (Petition 554276)1,113,889ClosedGovernment should support vulnerable children & #endchildfoodpoverty by implementing 3 recommendations from the National Food Strategy to expand access to Free School Meals, provide meals & activities during holidays to stop holiday hunger & increase the value of and expand the Healthy Start scheme2020FailedDebated in Parliament on 24 May 2021
Call an immediate general election to end the chaos of the current government865,697OpenCall an immediate general election so that the people can decide who should lead us through the unprecedented crises threatening the UK.2022FailedDebated in Parliament on 17 October 2022

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Initiative</span> Concept in political science

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain number of registered voters can force a government to choose either to enact a law or hold a public vote in the legislature in what is called indirect initiative, or under direct initiative, where the proposition is put to a plebiscite or referendum, in what is called a Popular initiated Referendum or citizen-initiated referendum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigel Farage</span> British politician (born 1964)

Nigel Paul Farage is a British broadcaster and former politician who was Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2006 to 2009 and 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Brexit Party from 2019 to 2021. He was Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 1999 until the United Kingdom's exit from the EU in 2020. He was the host of The Nigel Farage Show, a radio phone-in on the Global-owned talk radio station LBC, from 2017 to 2020. Farage is currently the Honorary President of Reform UK and a presenter for GB News.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Dismore</span> British Labour politician (born 1954)

Andrew Hartley Dismore is a British Labour politician who was the Member of the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden from 2012 to 2021. He previously was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hendon from 1997 until 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Field</span> British Conservative politician (born 1964)

Mark Christopher Field is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cities of London and Westminster from 2001 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2017 to 2019. A prominent supporter of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union during the Brexit referendum and of Jeremy Hunt in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, he left his post as a Foreign Office Minister when Boris Johnson's premiership began. He stood down from the British House of Commons at the 2019 United Kingdom general election.

An online petition is a form of petition which is signed online, usually through a form on a website. Visitors to the online petition sign the petition by adding their details such as name and email address. Typically, after there are enough signatories, the resulting letter may be delivered to the subject of the petition, usually via e-mail. The online petition may also deliver an email to the target of the petition each time the petition is signed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Walker</span> British Conservative politician

Robin Caspar Walker is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Worcester since 2010. He has chaired the House of Commons Education Select Committee since November 2022. He served as the Minister of State for School Standards from 2021 to 2022 and as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at both the Scotland Office and Northern Ireland Office under Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he identifies as a one-nation Conservative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caroline Nokes</span> British Conservative politician

Caroline Fiona Ellen Nokes is a British Conservative Party politician. She was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Romsey and Southampton North in Hampshire in the 2010 general election. Elected as a Conservative, Nokes had the Conservative whip removed on 3 September 2019 and sat as an independent politician until the whip was restored to her on 29 October.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that for the first time set in legislation a default fixed election date for a general election to the Westminster parliament. It remained in force until 2022, when it was repealed. Since then, as before its passage, elections are required by law to be held at least once every five years, but can be called earlier if the prime minister advises the monarch to exercise the royal prerogative to do so. Prime ministers have often employed this mechanism to call an election before the end of their five-year term, sometimes fairly early in it, and critics saw this as giving an unfair advantage to the incumbent prime minister. While it was in force, the FTPA removed this longstanding power of the prime minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum</span>

The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country should remain a member of, or leave, the European Union (EU). It was organised and facilitated through the European Union Referendum Act 2015 and the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. The referendum resulted in 51.9% of the votes cast being in favour of leaving the EU. Although the referendum was legally non-binding, the government of the time promised to implement the result.

Royston Matthew Smith is a British Conservative Party politician and has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Southampton Itchen since the 2015 general election. Smith was previously a councillor on the Southampton City Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Kyle</span> British Labour politician

Peter Kyle is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hove since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Green (politician)</span> British Conservative politician

Christopher Patrick James Green is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West since 2015. He was elected again in 2017 and 2019, increasing his majority and vote share at both general elections.

After the British EU membership referendum held on 23 June 2016, in which a majority voted to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom experienced political and economic upsets, with spillover effects across the rest of the European Union and the wider world. Prime Minister David Cameron, who had campaigned for Remain, announced his resignation on 24 June, triggering a Conservative leadership election, won by Home Secretary Theresa May. Following Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn's loss of a motion of no confidence among the Parliamentary Labour Party, he also faced a leadership challenge, which he won. Nigel Farage stepped down from leadership of the pro-Leave party UKIP in July. After the elected party leader resigned, Farage then became the party's interim leader on 5 October until Paul Nuttall was elected leader on 28 November.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018</span> United Kingdom legislation

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provides both for repeal of the European Communities Act 1972, and for parliamentary approval to be required for any withdrawal agreement negotiated between the Government of the United Kingdom and the European Union. The bill's passage through both Houses of Parliament was completed on 20 June 2018 and it became law by Royal Assent on 26 June.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017</span> United Kingdom legislation

The European Union Act 2017 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to empower the Prime Minister to give to the Council of the European Union the formal notice – required by Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union – for starting negotiations for the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union. It was passed following the result of the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum held on 23 June in which 51.9% of voters voted to leave the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Masterton</span> Scottish politician

Paul Masterton is a Scottish Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Renfrewshire from 2017 to 2019.

Since the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, a number of demonstrations have taken place and organisations formed whose goal has been to oppose, reverse or otherwise impede that decision.

Revoke Article 50 and remain in the EU is a petition submitted to the UK Parliament petitions website calling on the UK government to revoke article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, and remain a member state of the European Union. Following the referendum of 23 June 2016, in which the electorate of the United Kingdom voted by 17,410,742 to 16,141,241 to leave the European Union, the United Kingdom invocation of Article 50 occurred on 29 March 2017. This set a deadline for leaving the EU of 29 March 2019 which was later extended to 31 October 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019</span> United Kingdom legislation

The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2019, commonly informally referred to as the Benn Act after the Labour MP Hilary Benn as Chair of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee who introduced it, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that required the Prime Minister of the UK to seek an extension to the Brexit withdrawal date—then scheduled for 31 October 2019—in certain circumstances. The main provisions of the Act were triggered if the House of Commons did not give its consent to either a withdrawal agreement or leaving without a deal by 19 October 2019. The Act proposed a new withdrawal date of 31 January 2020, which the Prime Minister accepted if the proposal was accepted by the European Council.

References

  1. ↑ "Find out more about e-petitions". UK Parliament. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  2. ↑ "House of Commons Petitions Committee on Twitter". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  3. ↑ "A Brief History of Petitioning Parliament". Erskine May. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  4. 1 2 Connor, Gary (30 October 2015). "Are e-petitions a waste of time?". BBC Website. BBC. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  5. 1 2 "PM denies road toll 'stealth tax'". 21 February 2007. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  6. 1 2 Jones, David Millward and George (21 February 2007). "Blair rebuffs 1.8m who signed road petition". Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Popular e-petitions will now be debated in Parliament". Daily Telegraph. 29 July 2011. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  8. ↑ Rath, Kayte (17 August 2012). "E-petitions get 6.4m signatures" . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  9. ↑ Fox, Dr Ruth (2012). "What next for e-petitions?" (PDF). Hansard Society. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  10. ↑ "E-petitions - Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  11. ↑ "Revisiting Rebuilding the House: the impact of the Wright reforms (12th March 2013)". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  12. ↑ "E-petition plan for the Commons". 4 December 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  13. ↑ "E-petitions: a collaborative system, Procedure Committee publishes proposals - News from Parliament". UK Parliament. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  14. ↑ "House of Commons - E-petitions: a collaborative system - Procedure Committee". publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  15. ↑ "New e-petitions website opens". 20 July 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  16. ↑ "New House of Commons and Government petitions website launched - News from Parliament". Parliament of the United Kingdom.
  17. ↑ "Our work - UK Government and Parliament Petitions".
  18. 1 2 Hern, Alex (21 March 2019). "Petition to revoke article 50 exceeds 1m signatures amid site crashes". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  19. ↑ "May rejects revoke article 50 petition despite 2m signatures". 22 March 2019.
  20. ↑ "Brexit: 'Tired' public needs a decision, says Theresa May". BBC . 21 March 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  21. ↑ "Brexit: Revoke Article 50 petition crashes Parliament website". BBC News . 21 March 2019.
  22. 1 2 "Article 50: MPs debate six-million-signature petition". BBC News. 1 April 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  23. ↑ Millward, David; Eysenck, Juliet (29 June 2016). "Petition for second EU referendum reaches 4 million as hundreds attend anti-Brexit protest in London". The Telegraph. Daily Telegraph.
  24. ↑ "Petition calling for second EU referendum was created by a Leave voter – and he's not happy that it's been 'hijacked' by Remain". Daily Telegraph. 27 June 2016.
  25. ↑ "Government gives a damning response to a huge cannabis legalisation petition". The Independent. 25 August 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  26. ↑ "MPs to debate cannabis legalisation after petition reaches 200,000 signatures". the Guardian. 8 September 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  27. ↑ "The Ban Donald Trump petition crashed because so many people wanted to sign it". The Independent . 9 December 2015.
  28. ↑ "Trump UK ban petition passes 370,000 signatures". BBC News . 10 December 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  29. ↑ "UK Petition To Ban Donald Trump Breaks Record". Sky News .
  30. ↑ "Public figures call for biggest ever UK protest to oppose Trump visit". The Guardian . 1 February 2017.
  31. ↑ Swinford, Steven (14 February 2017). "Theresa May formally rejects petition calling for Donald Trump to be barred from making state visit to UK". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 21 March 2019.
  32. ↑ "Meningitis B vaccine petition gets date in parliament after record 800,000 signatures". Liverpool Echo . 4 March 2016.
  33. ↑ Simmonds, Kadeem (15 October 2020). "Marcus Rashford starts parliamentary petition to #endchildfoodpoverty". Morning Star . Retrieved 16 October 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.