Procedure Committee looks at e-petitions
Posted on | 7 December 2011 | No Comments
The UK House of Commons Procedure Committee heard from Leader of the House of Commons, the Rt. Hon. Sir George Young, and from MP Natascha Engel, chair of the Backbench Business Committee (BBC) on the matter of e-petitions. You can watch the meeting here, but I will summarise below some of the key issues raised.
Ms. Engel noted several times that the big problem with the e-petitions scheme was that it was conceived and implemented by the Government without consultation or debate in Parliament. Had there been consultation and debate, many of the problems which have arisen, and which she believes were entirely foreseeable, could have been avoided.
The biggest problem for the BBC is that of time. The e-petitions program was launched after the creation of the Backbench Business Committee, and thus after it had already been allocated a set number of days for debate during the course of the session. The BBC has no shortage of matters MPs wish to discuss, and thus it now must take away time from that to allow for debates on e-petitions which reach the 100,000 signature threshold.
Ms. Engel also noted that the 100,000 signature threshold appeared to be completely random, and that now, it would be difficult to change it (in the sense of increasing it to make it more difficult for e-petitions for qualify for referral to the BBC). She also noted that because this threshold exists, the focus is on numbers only rather than on the merit of the subject of the e-petition. This is a valid concern – some very important topics may never garner 100,000 signatures, but would certainly be worthy of debate in the House, while other more “frivolous” yet popular ideas could easily garner the required number of signatures. Consequently, the best petitions might not be the ones that ever get debated.
Ms. Engel also had serious concerns with the expectations of those who sign e-petitions. Part of the problem is that the website itself states:
e-petitions is an easy way for you to influence government policy in the UK.
As Ms. Engel pointed out to the Committee, this is very misleading. There is no direct link between signing an e-petition and changing a law (or influencing government policy), and Parliament needs to better explain to people what can be achieved by signing an e-petition. There was also some discussion of the fact that there is widespread belief that any petition which receives 100,000 signatures automatically gets debated in the House, which, as I have written about many times, is simply not the case.
Sir George Young was asked directly if the e-petitions were petitions to the Government or to Parliament. After some non-answers, he finally stated that they were initially petitions to Government, but once they reached the 100,000 threshold, they became petitions to Parliament. He was then asked if these were petitions to Government, why rely on the Backbench Business Committee to deal with them? Why didn’t the Government find time to schedule debates on e-petitions? Sir George didn’t really answer this question. He simply countered that to date, a very limited number of petitions had resulted in debates, and that there was little danger of e-petitions overwhelming the BBC.
Another member of the Procedure Committee pointed out that Westminster Hall was currently not in use on Monday afternoons, so why not reserve that time for e-petition debates? Sir George simply tossed that one back to the Procedure Committee, stating that it was within its purview to make such a recommendation in its report.
Ms. Engel pointed out that since the main problem with the e-petitions scheme was that it had been brought in without any consultation or debate, it would be wrong for another small group (the Procedure Committee) to further decide matters concerning e-petitions. It really was a matter that needed to be debated by the House as a whole. And she countered Sir George’s claim that while there had been only a handful of petitions which reached the 100,000 signature mark, this situation could very easily change and e-petitions could indeed end up swamping the Backbench Business Committee. She also noted that debates on e-petitions which have been held in Westminster Hall (rather than in the main Chamber proper) were considered “second rate” by many members of the public and that the BBC was flooded with angry emails over the fact that the debate had not taken place in the main Chamber.
Sir George was asked where the 100,000 number had come from, and he replied it was an “inspired and informed guess”, and that the Government had no plans to change it. Ms. Engel, however, noted again that there was a problem with the threshold because, as stated earlier, it all became a numbers game rather than a focus on the merits of the petition. She added that she appreciated that the Government had good intentions, that they wanted to avoid a situation like the Number 10 e-petitions set up by Prime Minister Tony Blair, wherein petitions could receive thousands of signatures but nothing happened, but that it was important to ask what was trying to be achieved with the e-petitions scheme. She believes that the aim is to provide better public engagement, but not public access to voteable motions on the floor of the House. She also praised the Scottish e-petitions system, where they have a focus on explaining the principle of petitioning, and a full-time Public Petitions Committee.
Ms. Engel also noted that while the e-petitions scheme has created a bridge between the public and Parliament, by referring the petitions directly to the BBC, it bypasses the MP completely, which is a very different way of doing business than is normally the case in Parliament. Citizens are normally expected to go through their MP when they have grievances. For example, MPs have their local constituency surgeries where they meet with their constituents, listen to their problems, explain how the system works, how to proceed, the best ways to deal with the problems they face, etc., in other words, there is a dialogue. The e-petition by-passes the MP and there is no dialogue.
She explained that all MPs are quite sensitive to what the public thinks of them, and the members of the BBC are quite aware that voters don’t like it when an e-petition debate occurs in Westminster Hall rather than the main chamber. As well, the committee is increasingly looking not at the merit of a matter brought forward to the committee for consideration for debate, but whether it has an e-petition attached to it. She suggested several times that the 100,000 signature threshold should be done away with and not have any threshold in place. That would allow e-petitions to be considered on their merit rather than relying solely on a numbers game.
There were a few other interesting points discussed, particularly the possible role the future House Business Committee might play in terms of scheduling debate time for e-petitions, as well as the question of what feedback was given to e-petitioners by the Government. The Procedure Committee is looking to release an urgent report in the very near future to address some of the more critical problems raised concerning e-petitions. I will keep you posted.
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Tags: Backbench Business Committee > debates > e-petitions > Procedure Committee > UK politics
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