Annex: Draft Memorandum of Understanding
between the Government and the Chair of the Petitions Committee,
and draft terms and conditions of the e-petitions site
Draft Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) between the Leader of the House of Commons and the Petitions
Committee relating to the submission and consideration of e-petitions
This MoU is agreed between the Leader of the House
of Commons, on behalf of the Government, and the Petitions Committee,
on behalf of the House of Commons, and relates to the submission
and consideration of e-petitions.
OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF TECHNICAL
INFRASTRUCTURE
1. The Government will own and manage the technical
infrastructure to deliver the e-petitions system, including the
website, which will be managed through the Office of the Leader
of the House of Commons.
2. Government Digital Services (GDS) will provide
hosting services and technical support, in cooperation and consultation
with Parliamentary ICT (PICT).
FUNDING
3. The cost of running, maintaining and developing
the technical infrastructure will be shared between the Government
and the House of Commons. The precise division of costs will be
agreed between the Government and the House authorities.
DESIGN
4. The publically accessible website text and
overall design is to be agreed between both parties to the MoU,
subject to consideration of relevant guidelines, including on
accessibility. The Government will agree links between the e-petitions
and Parliamentary websites in consultation with the Petitions
Committee agents acting on its behalf.
HANDLING OF PETITIONS
5. All e-petitions will be subject to terms and
conditions and must adhere to set criteria for acceptance. The
text and content of these conditions will be agreed between the
Government and the Petitions Committee. The form in which they
appear on the website, which has been agreed initially between
the Government and the Procedure Committee, is attached as an
annex to this MoU.
6. Before being opened publicly to signature
on the site, an e-petition must be approved as having met the
terms and conditions. Petitions will be moderated by Petitions
Committee staff, advised as necessary by officials of Government
departments. The target for moderating e-petitions will be seven
days following their submission.
7. There will be a minimum threshold of 5
signatures for a petition to be submitted for moderation.
8. Petitions Committee staff will be available
to advise prospective petitioners and those whose petitions have
been rejected on how to bring their petition into order, but will
not enter into correspondence about whether a petition ought to
have been rejected.
9. E-petitions which are approved as meeting
the terms and conditions of the site will stay 'open' for a period
of 6 months from their creation.
10. All e-petitions that reach 10 000 signatures
will receive a response from Government.
11. The Petitions Committee will consider all
petitions submitted through the e-petitions site (as well as all
paper petitions presented to the House) and, at its discretion,
may:
· Correspond with petitioners on their petition;
· Call petitioners for oral evidence;
· Refer a petition to the relevant select
committee (without obligation on that committee to take any further
action);
· Seek further information from the Government,
orally or in writing, on the subject of a petition;
· Put forward petitions for debate.
The Petitions Committee will not be able to take
action on every petition submitted through the site, but will
take decisions on which petitions to pursue based on factors including
the subject of the petition, the number of signatories, the Parliamentary
activity which has already taken place on the subject and any
response by the Government.
12. The Government will seek to meet reasonable
requests for information from the Committee in relation to petitions.
The Committee will only seek oral evidence from Ministers on petitions
in exceptional circumstances, for example in the event of a failure
to respond to requests for written information or to fulfil an
undertaking made in response to a petition.
REVIEW AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF
SITE
13. The Government and the Petitions Committee
will review this agreement annually.
14. Any proposed change to the system that may
impact upon the terms of this agreement will be agreed between
the Government and the Petitions Committee.
PAPER PETITIONS
15. Except as specifically mentioned, this agreement
does not relate to the House of Commons paper petition system.
Signed: (Leader of the House of
Commons)
Date:
Signed: (Chair of the Petitions
Committee)
Date:
Text of e-petition system terms
and conditions
The purpose of e-petitions is to provide an easy
way for you to make sure your concerns are heard by Government
and Parliament. All e-petitions will be accepted and published
on this website providing they:
· call on the government and/or the House
of Commons for a specific action
· do not substantially duplicate an existing
open e-petition
· meet the further criteria below.
SUBMISSION CONDITIONS
An e-petition may freely disagree with the government
or call for changes of policy. There will be no attempt to exclude
critical views. Decisions to accept or reject will be made on
an impartial basis.
However, to protect this service from abuse, e-petitions
must satisfy some basic conditions.
To create or sign an e-petition, you must be either:
· a British citizen, or
· a resident in the UK (you normally live
in the UK).
To submit an e-petition, you must use the online
form to provide:
· the title or subject of the e-petition
· a clear statement that covers the subject
of the e-petition and what action you want the government and/or
the House of Commons to take
· the name of the person submitting the
e-petition (the 'petitioner') —names of organisations cannot
be accepted
· the petitioner's email address (this will
not be published on the website)
· the petitioner's home address (this will
not be published on the website)
You must also provide up to [ten] e-mail addresses
of people who wish to sign your petition. An e-mail will be sent
to each of these people inviting them to confirm that they wish
to sign it. At least four of them must respond by clicking
the link in the email to confirm that they wish to sign the petition
before it can be published and opened for further signatures on
the site.
E-PETITION GUIDELINES
All e-petitions must call for a specific action from
the government or the House of Commons.
If an e-petition does not include a clear statement
explaining what action you want the government or the House to
take, it will be rejected.
When submitting an e-petition, you may not include
the following:
Confidential, libellous, false or defamatory statements,
or matters subject to active legal proceedings
· Information which may be protected by
an injunction or court order
· Material which is potentially confidential,
commercially sensitive, or which may cause personal distress or
loss
· Names of individuals if they have been
accused of a crime or information that may identify them
· Names of individual officials of public
bodies, unless they are part of the senior management of those
organisations
· Names of family members of elected representatives,
eg MPs, or officials of public bodies
· References to cases in which proceedings
are active in UK courts.
Offensive, joke or nonsense e-petitions
· Language that may cause offence, is provocative
or extreme in its views
· Wording that is impossible to understand
· Statements that amount to advertisements
· Joke or nonsense content
Matters which are not the responsibility of HM
Government or of the House of Commons
· Party political material
· Commercial endorsements including the
promotion of any product, service or publication
· Issues that are dealt with by devolved
bodies, eg The Scottish Parliament
· Correspondence on personal issues
· Freedom of Information requests
Matters relating to honours or appointments
· Nominations for honours. Find out how
to submit nominations for honours at: www.gov.uk/honours This link opens in a new
window
E-petitions that do not follow these guidelines cannot
be accepted. In these cases, you will be informed by email of
the reason(s) your e-petition has been refused.
We will publish the full text of rejected e-petitions,
unless the content is illegal, offensive or confidential. The
text of petitions which do not receive the support of at least
four additional signatories will not be published.
It is not possible to alter a rejected e-petition,
and no correspondence will be entered into regarding rejected
e-petitions. Rejection of an e-petition does not stop you from
submitting a new e-petition which meets the terms and conditions
of the site. Advice on petitioning is available from the House
of Commons Petitions Office [insert link and phone no.].
OPENING OF PETITIONS FOR SIGNATURE
It will usually take up to seven days from the time
the first four signatories are confirmed following the submission
of an e-petition for it to appear on the website. During busy
periods it may take longer.
Once accepted, e-petitions will be made available
on this website for anyone to sign. Anyone signing the e-petition
must provide their name, home address and email address. No personal
details will be published on the site. This information will not
be used for any purpose other than in relation to the e-petition.
The government or the House of Commons may contact
you by email to:
· confirm you have submitted an e-petition
· confirm you have signed an e-petition
· provide updates about the e-petition.
If you sign an e-petition (are a 'signatory'), you
will only receive updates if you choose this option when you sign
it.
All petitioners and signatories will receive a first
email that asks you to confirm your email address.
E-PETITIONS AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
The Petitions Committee of the House of Commons will
consider the petitions submitted through the site and will have
responsibility for confirming that they are suitable for presentation
to the House. The Committee may also:
· Correspond with petitioners on their petition;
· Call petitioners for oral evidence;
· Draw a petition to the attention of the
relevant select committee;
· Seek further information from the Government,
orally or in writing, on the subject of a petition;
· Put forward a petition for debate, or
draw the attention of the House to a petition which is relevant
to a debate already taking place.
If the Petitions Committee decides to take further
action in respect of a petition, the creator of the petition will
be notified, along with any signatories to the petition who have
chosen to receive updates. Information on the action taken by
the Committee, and as appropriate links to information on other
Parliamentary activity relating to the subject of the petition,
will be published with the petition on the website.
PAPER BASED PARLIAMENTARY PETITIONS
The e-petitions system is not intended to replace
the current paper based system of public petitions in the House
of Commons.
For more information about the paper based Parliamentary
petitions, you can visit the UK Parliament website This link opens
in a new window.
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