What happens to Parliamentary Petitions?

• Listen to the episode
• Find out more about Committee Corridor

Catherine McKinnell MP, podcast host and Chair of the House of Commons Petitions Committee, unwraps the petitions process with petitioner Andy Airey, expert Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira, and fellow MP, Nick Fletcher.   

Andy Airey is one third of ‘Three Dads Walking’ who became ‘accidental campaigners’ after their daughters – Sophie, Emily and Beth – took their own lives. 

During a fundraising walk for the suicide prevention charity, Papyrus, the fathers discovered that suicide is one of the biggest killers of those under the age of 35 across the UK.   

“It was actually on that walk that we became these accidental campaigners because we met so many suicide- bereaved parents who told us their stories of loss,” he tells Catherine McKinnell.  

“And invariably they said, why didn't anybody tell us? Why didn't anybody tell them, if suicide's the biggest risk to our young people, surely, we should be doing something about it?”  

The podcast marks eight years of Parliamentary e-petitions. More than a quarter of the UK’s population have signed a petition in that time.   

More than 30,000 petitions have been created – garnering 110 million signatures – and 350 of them have been debated by MPs. 

After 10,000 signatures, petitions get a response from Government. After 100,000 signatures, petitions are considered for debate by the Petitions Committee. 

“It was an absolute revelation to sit there and hear MP after MP stand up and talk about us three old blokes who’d gone for a walk and talk about our daughters, and how they’d lost their lives and how that had then affected ours,” Andy tells Catherine.  

The Dads’ petition, to make suicide prevention a compulsory part of the school curriculum, was presented to the House of Commons by Nick Fletcher, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Don Valley. He values the potential of petitions to create a springboard for further action.  

“I know when legislation is made, they look back to these petitions to see what's being said by other members of Parliament. And that helps form legislation.”  

Petitions raise awareness of issues among the general public and within Parliament, he says.  

“I would encourage as many people as possible to start those petitions because we can't know everything that's going off in this big wide world. It's only when people actually email us and tell us. But petitions, it brings people together.” 

This is often referred to as the ‘fire alarm function,’ explains Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira from the University of Leeds, who looks at the relationship between Parliament and the public, particularly through petitions. 

“MPs have a very good, quite close relationships, often with their constituents. They'll have issues brought to them, but they don't necessarily get that overall picture of how much is it affecting constituents at the national level.”  

Parliament's e-petition website allows members of the public to engage directly with the political process. More can be done to strengthen the links between the different elements of Parliament and the petitions process, she says, but the UK’s petition system compares well to those other countries or legislatures with many choosing the UK’s model for their own. 

“It compares really well in terms of innovation, in terms of volume of petitions. So, by  any measure that you may measure, it’s got the highest volume of petitions and petitions considered by a long margin.” 

Further information

• Tell us what you think of Committee Corridor
• Women and Equalities Committee
• Petitions Committee

Image: Tyler Allicock/UK Parliament