2 PUBLIC PETITIONS
AND SELECT COMMITTEES
3. The Modernisation Committee recommended that petitions
should "stand referred" to the relevant departmental
select committees. It envisaged that the Committee might take
evidence about a petition, include it in a current or forthcoming
inquiry, ask the Government for a response or reject it on the
basis that it was "more properly the responsibility of some
… body" other than the House. It also recommended, however,
the retention of the existing procedure whereby all petitions
are printed and sent to the relevant Government department, so
that Ministers may make observations.
4. We consulted the Liaison Committee about this
recommendation: the exchange of correspondence is set out in Appendix
2. We thought that the use of the word "referred" might
imply that committees would be expected (at least by the petitioners)
to take some action. Some petitions are about individual cases:
committees usually resist taking up such cases. Committees might
also, of course, not wish to ascribe more priority to issues raised
in petitions than to those coming before them in less formal ways,
including letters from the public and suggestions by Members.
We therefore suggested, as an alternative, sending a copy of each
presented petition to the relevant select committee, without any
formal "referral" and with, perhaps, therefore, less
expectation that committees would feel obliged to say something
about each petition.
5. The Liaison Committee considered the subject on
19 October and agreed with this suggestion. We therefore recommend
to the House that a copy of each petition, once printed, should
be sent to the relevant departmental select committee at the same
time as it is sent to the relevant Government department. Government
observations, or notifications received by the Journal Office
that no observations are to be made, should also be passed on
to the relevant committee. On occasions, committees may wish
to press for observations to be made when then they have not been
forthcoming.
3 THE NEED FOR A HANDWRITTEN
TOP SHEET
6. The current rules require handwriting, rather
than printing or typing, for the top sheet containing the petition
itself, as distinct from further sheets for signatures, on which
the petition (or just the "prayer" or request from it)
does not need to be handwritten. This rule, which dates from 1656,[5]
was endorsed by our predecessors in 1992, partly on the grounds
that the use of handwriting serves to distinguish the top sheet
from the others.
7. The Modernisation Committee recommended that the
rule be discontinued, partly because of the "minor additional
labour" involved. In practice, many petitions received by
Members are disorderly (often because they are not addressed specifically
to the House and do not ask the House to take any action) and
have to be re-drafted by the Journal Office. Under the current
rules, they then need to be written out by hand, often in Members'
offices, before the signature of at least one petitioner is obtained.
To avoid the need for re-drafting, we draw the attention of
intending petitioners to the rules for petitions, which are
sent by the Journal Office to anyone who applies for them, and
are also available on the Parliamentary web site.[6]
As to the requirement for handwriting, we understand that the
staff of the Journal Office see no difficulty in distinguishing
the top sheet from pages of added names by the presence of the
presenting Member's signature at the top of the petition.
8. We agree with the Modernisation Committee that
the existing rule requiring the top sheet to be handwritten should
be dispensed with, and that the existing rule against alterations
("interlineations, deletions and insertions") should
be retained.
2 Select Committee on Modernisation of the House of
Commons, First Report, Session 2003-04, HC 368, paras 96-104.
These paragraphs are set out in Appendix 1. Back
3
The term "public petitions" excludes petitions for,
or relating to, Private Bills, which are subject to separate procedures. Back
4
Select Committee on Procedure, Fourth Report, Session 1991-92,
HC 286 Back
5
Modernisation Committee Report, para 102 (set out in Appendix
1) Back
6
www.parliament.uk, under "Petitions" in the index Back
