Another election consequence

All petitions put before Parliament are ending early;

Because of the General Election, the closing date for the petition you signed has changed. All petitions now have to close at 00:01am on 30 May. This is because Parliament will be dissolved, which means all parliamentary business – including petitions – must stop. This means the petitions site will be closed and people will not be able to start or sign petitions.

We’re sorry we weren’t able to give you more notice that this would happen.

The petition will be available for people to read on the site even though it will be closed for signatures. This petition won’t be reopened after the election.

The Government can’t respond to petitions during the election period. This means if the petition has over 10,000 signatures, it can’t receive a response from the current Government after 29 May. After the election, the new Government will have to decide whether to respond to petitions from before the election.

The current Petitions Committee, the group of MPs who decide whether petitions are debated, won’t exist after 30 May. This means that if the petition has over 100,000 signatures, it can’t be scheduled for debate during this Parliament. After the election, a new Petitions Committee will be responsible for deciding which petitions are debated.

The petitions site will reopen when a new Petitions Committee is appointed, but at the moment we don’t know exactly when. You can follow us on X (formerly Twitter) hocpetitions for updates, or check back on the petitions site for news.

You can find out more about what the General Election means for your petitions on our website: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/201677/your-petitions-and-the-2024-general-election-faqs/

 

I suspect that most petitions will have to start over.