INTRODUCTION

It’s been a busy and exciting first year for the new Petitions Committee and the petitions site. The e-petitions site was created so that members of the public can petition the House of Commons and ask the Government to take action. They are an easy and quick way for all British Citizens and UK residents to let Members of Parliament and the Government know about the issues they care about.

WHERE ARE PEOPLE STARTING PETITIONS?

Number of creators of accepted petitions from each parliamentary constituency July 2015 to July 2016

In this first year, it has been encouraging to see so many people deciding to get involved. Between July 2015 and July 2016, over 10 million unique email addresses were used to sign petitions in the UK. In total, there were over 20 million signatures on petitions.

WHERE ARE PEOPLE SIGNING PETITIONS?

Total number of signatures received from each parliamentary constituency July 2015 to July 2016

By making the site easy to use, we hope that a wide range of people can have their voices heard – especially people who wouldn’t normally engage with politics or Parliament.

Signing a petition can be just the start of someone’s involvement with Parliament. It can lead to them watching a debate, in person or online. They might learn about a select committee inquiry and watch an oral evidence session – or even decide to send in their own written evidence or take part in a web forum. In some cases, they may even be invited to give evidence in person to a committee.

It’s vitally important that Parliament is open to everyone and that a whole range of voices are heard at the heart of our democracy. Petitions are one way of making that happen.

NUMBER OF PETITIONS CHECKED JULY 2015 TO JULY 2016

CHECKING PETITIONS

Once a petition has been started and signed by five other people, it comes to Petitions Committee staff to be checked. The staff are checking whether petitions meet the rules that the House of Commons has agreed on for petitions.

From launching the site in July 2015 to the following July, we received 23,232 petitions. We accepted and published 6121 petitions and rejected over twice as many because they didn’t meet the rules. This shows we still have a lot to do to help people understand what types of petitions we can and cannot accept.

About half the petitions we rejected were very similar to a petition that was already open on the site. We can’t accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue. This avoids splitting support for a cause across multiple petitions. You are more likely to get action on an issue if you sign and share a single petition.

The other main reason we reject petitions is because they are asking for something that the UK Government and the House of Commons are not responsible for. When this happens, we try to help people by explaining who is responsible for the action they want. For example, they may need to petition their local council or one of the devolved Parliaments or Assemblies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We always explain why we have rejected petitions.

WHY HAVE PETITIONS BEEN REJECTED?

THE WORK OF THE PETITIONS COMMITTEE

We are a group of MPs from different political parties, independent from the Government. We have responsibility for overseeing the petitions site and ensuring that petitioners are treated fairly. We also make decisions about which petitions we take action on. This doesn’t mean that we can change the law or do what the petition is asking for. It means that we can decide that the issue raised by a petition needs to be looked at further. That might mean that it needs to be debated by MPs or investigated by an expert committee. Sometimes we decide to investigate petitions ourselves and make recommendations to the Government for action.

GOVERNMENT RESPONSES TO PETITIONS

When a petition reaches 10,000 signatures, we send it to the relevant Government department for a response. In the first year, the Government responded to 264 petitions. It should respond within 14 days and no later than 21. As a Committee, we keep an eye on how well the Government is keeping to these deadlines, and press Ministers to do better when we need to. We also look at the quality of responses to petitions. If we don’t think that the Government has given a clear and direct answer to a petition, we ask Ministers for a better response.

WHAT HAVE PEOPLE BEEN PETITIONING ABOUT THIS YEAR?

DEBATES

Whenever a petition receives more than 100,000 signatures, we consider whether it should be debated in the House of Commons. Almost all petitions with more than 100,000 signatures are debated. If they’re not, it’s usually because there’s recently been a debate on the same subject, or there’s already a debate happening soon.

The Petitions Committee has been given our own dedicated time just for petition debates on Monday afternoons from 4.30pm. It’s quite rare for MPs who aren’t in the Government to be able to schedule debates. Having our own dedicated time for debating your petitions shows how seriously petitions are taken by the House of Commons.

From the outset, we have aimed to maximise the potential for petitioners and other members of the public to be involved with the debates that are triggered by petitions. Over the first year we’ve held events where petitioners have shared their views in person with MPs before a debate, and provided opportunities for people to share their views online with MPs in order to inform the debate - including chats on Twitter and Facebook and discussions on existing forums such as NetMums, Mumsnet, and Money Saving Expert.

It’s important to be clear about what these debates actually mean. They don’t, for example, result in a vote to implement the request of a petition. This often leads people to ask “Well, what’s the point then?”. The answer is that raising your issue through a debate in Parliament is a great step for any campaign. You should never underestimate the power of making the Government defend its position, or respond to an issue it might not otherwise have been thinking about. It’s also a great way to raise the issue amongst MPs, who can then continue to press the Government for action even after the debate has finished. Petition debates are now among the most watched and read debates in Parliament, so they are a great way of raising the awareness of your campaign amongst the wider public and within the media. A debate will almost certainly not be the end of your campaign but it is a hugely valuable step.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE SIGNING PETITIONS?

Number of unique users from each parliamentary constituency

COMMITTEE INVESTIGATIONS

As a Committee, we also have the power to carry out our own inquiries (in the same way as other House of Commons select committees do). We obviously can’t investigate every petition, so we try to choose petitions where our investigation could make a real difference – by bringing new information and voices into Parliament and shedding new light on a subject. We look for petitions that have a substantial amount of support, on issues that are not already being debated or investigated in Parliament and where we are not satisfied with the Government’s response to the petition.

FUNDING FOR RESEARCH INTO BRAIN TUMOURS

Our first inquiry, which began in October last year, was into a petition which called for more funding for brain tumour research. The petition was started by Maria Lester to mark the anniversary of the death of her brother, Stephen, from a brain tumour. Stephen was diagnosed when he was just 19, and died when he was 26. When we first came to look at the petition, it had about 20,000 signatures and had had a response from the Government. We were disappointed that the response did not give us confidence that the Government had grasped the seriousness of the concerns highlighted by the petition. We therefore decided that the subject deserved more detailed examination.

We were keen that this should be a public-led, as well as public-initiated, inquiry. We opened a web thread on which people could share their views and experiences, and received 1100 responses in five days. We invited some of those who responded to a private event, where we were able to talk in more detail informally in small groups. We also held two formal oral evidence sessions, including taking evidence from the petition’s creator, Maria Lester, and her parents, Peter and Elizabeth Realf. The evidence we heard was compelling and the whole Committee were in agreement that something needed to be done so in March this year we published a report calling on the Government to take action.

It was standing room only in Westminster Hall when the petition, and our report, was debated on 18 April – for MPs and the public alike. In response, the then Minister responsible, George Freeman, announced that the Government now accepted that it needed to do more to increase the amount of funding for brain tumour research. This was a huge change from the Government’s initial response to the petition. The Government has set up a working group of clinicians, charities and officials (including those involved with the petition and Peter Realf, Stephen’s father to discuss how to address the need for more brain tumour research. As a Committee, we will be keeping a close watch on this to make sure that some concrete actions come out of it. Maria Lester who started the petition and Sue Farrington Smith from the charity Brain Tumour Research have both written short pieces for us about their experiences.

HIGH HEELS AND WORK PLACE DRESS CODES

This petition was started by Nicola Thorp after she was sent home from work for refusing to wear high heels. The Committee decided to see how widespread the problem was. We opened a web thread and received over 700 stories from people who had had similar experiences to Nicola’s at work. We invited two women who had commented on the thread, along with Nicola and some other experts, to give formal oral evidence to the Committee. It was a real eye opener for us to hear in detail the experience of female workers. Nicola has written a short piece for us about her experience.

MENINGITIS B VACCINE

One of the biggest petitions we received in our first year was the Meningitis B vaccination petition, which was signed by well over 800,000 people. The petition achieved most of its support after the parents of Faye Burdett, who tragically died at the age of two, shared their story in public. Before scheduling a debate on this petition, we wanted to investigate the issue to ensure that the debate on this important issue was well informed. We worked with our colleagues on the Health Committee and heard from families – including Mr and Mrs Burdett and Lee Booth, who created the petition. We also heard from charities and medical experts. It was important for us to give the families the chance to have their voices heard in Parliament, on an equal footing with medical experts and government officials.

The petition was debated on 25 April. During the debate, Health Minister, Jane Ellison MP, announced a new Government awareness campaign about the symptoms of meningitis. This came in direct response to some of the points raised by families in oral evidence. The Government is also reviewing how decisions about the cost-effectiveness of vaccines are made. This work is still ongoing - the Minister said that the Government would publish the report of this group when it is ready later this year and share it with the Petitions and Health Committees. As a Committee we are monitoring the Government’s work on this very closely. Lee Booth has written a short piece for us about his experience.

SUGARY DRINKS TAX

Another petitioner, Jamie Oliver, along with the campaign group Sustain, created a petition calling for a tax on sugary drinks. The Health Committee was already doing an inquiry into the Government’s policy on childhood obesity, so it made sense for us to refer this petition to them as part of their work. Jamie Oliver and Sustain were invited to give evidence in person to the MPs on the Health Committee as part of its work.

At the end of its inquiry, the Health Committee recommended that the Government should introduce a tax on sugary drinks. We arranged to schedule a debate on the petition to coincide with the publication of the Health Committee’s report. Despite saying that it “had no plans” to introduce such a levy in its initial response to the petition, on Wednesday 16 March the Chancellor announced that the Government would be introducing a sugar levy on the soft drinks industry in 2018. Obviously it wasn’t the petition alone which led to this – but it was a significant part of the campaign which ultimately led to the changes.

PROMOTING THE WORK OF PARLIAMENT MORE WIDELY

We do our best to keep people who create and sign petitions informed, not just about the progress of their petition, but also about other debates or inquiries that are happening in Parliament on the same subject. For example, we try to link petitioners up with the work of other select committees, so that people signing petitions know about other ways in which they can share their views with MPs. This has led to members of the public, who might otherwise not have been aware of these committee inquiries, to take part.

For example, the creator of a petition calling for transpeople to have the right to define their own gender was invited to give evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee as part of its inquiry into Transgender Equality. In its report, the Committee recommended that the process should be reformed and quoted the evidence given by the petition creator.

E-petition debates and other debates in Parliament which we have emailed petitioners about are some of the most watched and most read debates ever. Our emails have helped increase the readership of Hansard (the record of everything that is said in Parliament) by 75% and the viewing of Westminster Hall debates by around 900%.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Getting a change in Government policy is not an easy task – not even for experienced MPs - so we can appreciate how frustrating it must feel at times for people outside Westminster. All petitions, however large or small, will raise the profile of an issue. It is unrealistic, of course, to expect all petitions to lead directly to change. Sometimes it can take years of campaigning and hundreds of petitions.

Our historical “petition of the month” feature illustrates that petitions have often played an important part in raising awareness of an issue as part of a wider campaign. This was particularly apparent in the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first mass women’s suffrage petition which we celebrated on 7th June 2016. Others include abolition of the slave trade and the 1816 petitioning campaign to repeal the income tax.

But not all campaigns take decades to achieve their aim. In our first year, we’ve already seen petitions change Government policy and have an influence on what happens in Parliament. As we look ahead to the second year of the Committee’s work, we hope to see even more people using the petitions system to engage with Parliament and make a difference.

WHERE ARE USERS OF THE PETITIONS SITE COMING FROM?

PETITIONS WHICH WERE SCHEDULED FOR DEBATE BY THE PETITIONS COMMITTEE IN ITS FIRST YEAR

14/09/2015

To debate a vote of no confidence in Health Secretary the Right Hon Jeremy Hunt (Contracts and conditions in the NHS)

12/10/2015

Make the production, sale and use of cannabis legal.

19/10/2015

Stop allowing immigrants into the UK

26/10/2015

Make an allowance for up to 2 weeks term time leave from school for holiday

30/11/2015

Introduce a tax on sugary drinks in the UK to improve our children's health

07/12/2015

Don't kill our bees! Immediately halt the use of Neonicotinoids on crops

11/01/2016

Keep the NHS Bursary

18/01/2016

Block Donald J Trump from UK entry; Don't ban Trump from the United Kingdom

25/01/2016

Scrap plans forcing self employed & small business to do 4 tax returns yearly

01/02/2016

Make fair transitional state pension arrangements for 1950’s women

07/03/2016

Scrap the £35k threshold for non-EU citizens settling in the UK

21/03/2016

Jeremy Hunt to resume meaningful contract negotiations with the BMA

18/04/2016

Fund more research into brain tumours, the biggest cancer killer of under-40s

25/04/2016

Give the Meningitis B vaccine to ALL children, not just newborn babies

09/05/2016

Stop Cameron spending British taxpayers’ money on Pro-EU Referendum leaflets

06/06/2016

Restrict the use of fireworks to reduce stress and fear in animals and pets

13/06/2016

Stop spending a fixed 0.7 per cent slice of our national wealth on Foreign Aid

04/07/2016

Include expressive arts subjects in the Ebacc

11/07/2016

No more school penalty fines and bring back the 10 day authorised absence

18/07/2016

Stop retrospective changes to the student loans agreement

PETITIONS COMMITTEE INQUIRIES IN ITS FIRST YEAR:

Funding for research into brain tumours Meningitis B Vaccine High heels and work place dress codes

BRAIN TUMOUR RESEARCH

Maria Lester

BRAIN TUMOUR RESEARCH

Sue Farrington Smith

HIGH HEELS

Nicola Thorp

MENINGITIS B PETITION

Lee Booth

SUSTAIN: THE ALLIANCE FOR BETTER FOOD AND FARMING

Malcolm Clark, co-ordinator, Children’s Food Campaign

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