Public set to submit e-petitions to parliament

MPs want online petitions to come to House of Commons for official consideration, instead of Number 10

Parliamentary reporter, Computing 07 Apr 2008

Parliament is poised to accept e-petitions as a way of listening to public concerns, following the success of the 10 Downing Street web site.

The Commons Procedure Committee has agreed e-petitioning "offers a simple, effective and transparent way for the public to tell MPs about what matters to them and to indicate levels of support for their concerns".

The committee has recommended that online petitions should be received via the parliamentary web site at www.parliament.uk, instead of Number 10.

The MPs recommended that those complying with Commons rules should be open to receive signatures through the web, available for support from MPs, and should be entitled to a reply from government departments within two months, consideration by select committees and a few selected for debate.

The Downing Street web site received 29,000 e-petitions and 5.5 million signatures in its first year of operation. The committee report said the Commons had not experienced such traffic since the 19th century when, in 1843, 33,898 petitions were received in paper form.

The decision could signal the death knell for the existing system involving the physical collection of signatures, the delivery of the signed documents to parliament and their presentation in the Commons chamber, when a local MP " deposits" them in a sack behind speaker Michael Martin's chair. Its use has been in steady decline.

"Historically and constitutionally the House of Commons is the place to which petitions should properly be presented. It is time for the House to reclaim that role in the internet age," said committee chairman Greg Knight.

"It has the potential to open up the House's proceedings in new and to some extent unpredictable ways."

Supporters hope the move will reverse growing disenchantment with parliamentary democracy by forcing MPs to react more quickly and effectively to public demands.

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