Your constituents can use petitions to call for action on an issue for which Government or Parliament is responsible.
The House of Commons accepts two types of petitions:
- E-petitions are started by members of the public and submitted through the e-petitions website. If 10,000 people sign an e-petition, the Government will respond. If 100,000 people sign an e-petition, the Petitions Committee will consider holding a debate. You can see how many people in your constituency have signed a particular petition by looking at the e-petitions website.
- Paper petitions (also known as public petitions) are presented by MPs on behalf of constituents or other members of the public. They can either be presented formally in the Chamber or informally. Paper petitions receive a response from the Government. There is no minimum number of signatures needed for this to happen. The Petitions Committee also considers paper petitions for debate.