When Hannah Kidner started a petition to get her school to start at 10am she had no idea how popular it would become What started as a class assignment, became a parliamentary debate So does the future of change lie in e-petitions? THREAD ⬇️
The geometry of footballs, funding for cancer research, delaying the start of the school day until 10am - if you start a petition and it takes off, MPs may just end up debating it.
Earlier that year, Hannah had written an essay for her biology class about the importance of sleep, and it had prompted her to start reading for herself. She discovered scientific studies had suggested that adolescents had a late-running biological rhythm, and that starting lessons at 10am could have enormous benefits for them.
“I thought: actually, you know what? I’m interested in this,” Hannah recalls. “Let’s see if anyone else will be.” She went to the e-petitions website and followed the instructions. She had to find five people to support it, but that wasn’t difficult in a classroom filled with pupils who’d also made long journeys through the countryside that morning.
If you ever wish to stare deep inside the United Kingdom’s collective subconsciousness, and take a sample of the variety of the current hopes, fears, aspirations, worries, preoccupations, aversions and enthusiasms of the British populace, you could do far worse than browse the “open petitions” section of the e-petitions website:Remove the ban on Tyler, The Creator, entering the UKAmend animal welfare law to make pet theft a specific offenceFund the art form of comic books to the same level that...
Gemma Weir knew her petition had to be worded carefully. Her cause felt urgent, but she had to keep her language calm and measured if she was to have any chance of success, and the stakes were too high to get anything wrong. Clinical trials showed the treatment, known as Orkambi, could improve lung function for people with CF. In 2015 it was licensed for use in the UK. But in 2016, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence rejected it for patients in England on the grounds of cost-effectiveness. Vertex, Orkambi’s manufacturer, wanted over £100,000 per patient for a year’s treatment.
On Monday 5 November 2018, in a room in the Palace of Westminster, a tarpaulin-draped Big Ben looms outside the window. This is the base of a team of House of Commons employees whose job is to support and advise MPs on the Petitions Committee, and to check incoming e-petitions comply with the rules.
A map on the committee website shows each UK constituency colour-coded by how many residents have signed the fireworks petition. South-west England, where it is proving most popular, glows red. Northern Ireland, where a licence is already required to buy, possess or use outdoor fireworks, is yellow, indicating that fewer are putting their names to it.
Another petition, that demanded shops should be closed on Boxing Day to give retail workers a rest, was signed by nearly 150,000 people. One calling for greater action against tool theft from vans was signed by more than 40,000. It had been his third attempt at starting a petition on the subject. His first had attracted a tiny number of signatures and the second had been put on hold when the 2017 general election was called. The decision to hold a debate despite not reaching the threshold felt like a vindication. “I was just so ecstatic that it was being recognised,” he says.
The Petitions Committee – whose chair, Helen Jones, was also underwhelmed with the government’s response - announced it would hold its first ever inquiry into brain tumour research funding. It was a significant vote of confidence. But three weeks out from the February deadline, the petition was still 46,000 signatures short of the figure needed to trigger a parliamentary debate.
It seemed to be working. With a week to go they were 30,000 short. The Petitions Committee had been in touch to say they would consider scheduling a debate even if it fell short of 100,000, but Stephen’s family were determined to leave no room for doubt. One morning as the deadline approached, Liz and Peter lay in bed watching as the number of signatures inched towards 100,000.
Westminster’s current system can be traced to 2006, when Tony Blair’s government set up a Downing Street e-petitions website. This proved popular – a petition opposing government plans for road pricing was signed by 1.8 million people – but there was not, at that stage, a mechanism that might lead to Parliament debating the issues raised.
The work can be emotionally taxing. Often petitions are started by people who have been bereaved or are in distress. The reports the committee commissioned into brain tumours and cystic fibrosis involved them listening to hundreds of upsetting stories. Petitions also can’t call for anyone to be sacked. In the committee’s early days a petition calling for a vote of no confidence in then Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt attracted 339,000 signatures, but the rules were changed shortly afterwards.
The moderators also say they’ll give additional support to people who have been recently bereaved or those who struggle with language. Petitions will also be rejected if they are “nonsense or a joke”. Anderson says not many joke petitions make it through, and anyway most would struggle to attract five signatures, or would fall foul of the rule that says the issue must fall within Parliament’s area of responsibility. But sometimes just how serious an issue really is can be a matter of debate.
After managing to convince them that he was 100% committed to the cause of geometric correctness, the petition went live and attracted 22,536 signatures. Nieva had lived in the UK since 2006, the year she’d married Richard, a mechanic. The couple had met online, and she’d thrown herself into life in his hometown of Thetford, Norfolk. She’d worked as a bookkeeper, made friends around the town, and with Richard had brought up a daughter.
Richard, 40, saw how tough the separation was on his wife. “I didn’t expect her to be isolated from her family,” he says. “It shouldn’t be a punishment for wanting to be with your husband in the UK."Starting an e-petition felt like Nieva’s last hope. It called for automatic approval of visitor’s visas for family members of British citizens.
But when a minister stood up, it was to say the government hadn’t changed its mind. Despite herself, Nieva was crestfallen. “I think it’s my own fault for expecting more,” she says. “I trusted you guys, the British. I thought you always came up with the best solution. I thought one of those intelligent heads would come out and say: ‘Let’s do it this way.’”
In the future, Helen Jones would like the committee to have time allocated on the floor of the House of Commons so it can put down motions that MPs can vote on. “Most petitioners are pleased that they’ve been heard and that their point has been put - but there are some things where you would want to move to a vote.” Another thing she says she’d like to change is that petitions are most likely to be started “in places like London and Bristol”.