Today is the last day of July and the beginning of the second week of the summer break for Parliament when MPs are not able to discuss the usual business issues with their colleagues or the Government. However, in the summer break MPs are able to communicate with people in their community and those that take this approach are to be commended. During the Summer there are opportunities for us to review and connect with by contacting our MPs, the political party groups and the Government directly.

Back in 2010 the Conservative Government established an e-petitions website. This presents an opportunity for ordinary people to raise important subjects that could be adopted by Parliament. The website presents the public with a great deal of information and an opportunity to contribute during the six month period of the petitions. Signing an e-petition is a way of supporting issues that affect our friends, neighbours or important public services. 10,000 signatures are required before a written response will be given by the Government. E-petitions are one way of letting the government know what we care about and what we expect the government to pay attention to.

In the first five-year period of the Conservative Government from 2010 to 2015 nearly 33,000 petitions were approved with 41 of them achieving more than 100,000 signatures which were intended to be discussed by MPs. In the following two Government periods from May 2015 to December 2019, covering four and a half years there was a total of 19,104 approved petitions and 142 achieved more than 100,000 signatures. Since December of 2019 in the last three and a half years there have been nearly 48,000 approved petitions and so far, 166, that have gained more than 100,000 signatures.

The website indicates 174 e-petitions discussed in Parliament. In the session entitled “Petitions debated in Parliament” 29 of them on the list have less than 100,000 signatures. There are also six petitions which have passed 100,000 additions that are waiting to be discussed in Parliament yet there are no dates for them planned so far. Indeed, one of them reached 100,000 in two and a half years and another one reached it two years ago. 17 petitions have achieved 100,000 signatures but they will never be discussed because they are not accepted and no reason is given to explain why.

One of the other strange aspects is the website claims that since the beginning of 2023 only 26 e-petitions were discussed by Parliament. However, if we check out the debates in Parliament it is clear that there was a total of 38 discussions that have taken place this year involving a total of 69 petitions.

Of course, many of us would want our local MPs to arrange some of these discussions but only one of the Sussex MPs has organised a discussion this year although thankfully several have participated. The one submitted by a Sussex MP took place on the 10th May, by the Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell who promoted the e-petition 633777 “Give students who miss exams due to illness a right to Centre Assessed Grades”. Strangely that petition has still only obtained 6,500 signatures and it needs at least another 3,500 before the 28th August to ensure it will get a written response from the Government. Four of our local MPs have contributed to events in which they represented the Government as Ministers who were Nick Gibb on three settings and Maria Caulfield, Mims Davies and Andrew Griffith for a single session.

The other local MPs that have contributed were Caroline Ansell who organised one event and took part in another, Caroline Lucas and Sally-Ann Hart have taken part in three events. Also, Peter Bottomley and Tim Loughton took place on two cases and Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Henry Smith contributed on one occasion this year.

The most significant petition that emerged this year was discussed as “We call upon the Government to hold a Public Inquiry into the impact of Brexit” with 216,805 signatures. It was debated in April and organised by Martyn Day who is a SNP MP and Caroline Lucas took part in the discussion.

Another significant petition was the “Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response: International Agreement” which was also debated in April although the petition ended last November. This discussion was organised by Nicholas Fletcher a Conservative MP and it included Sally-Ann Hart in the discussion.

Currently there are only two planned sessions after Summer. On the 4th September Elliot Colburn from the Conservatives is running a session organised as “relating to assessments for disability benefits” which will involve two petitions that were completed this year. Interestingly none of these have had more than 30,000 signatures.

The following week Marsha de Cordova for Labour is organising a session entitled “relating to pay and financial support for healthcare students” which involves three e-petitions none of which have more than 14,000 signatures.

It would certainly be very positive and encouraging if some other debates representing a larger range of e-petitions could take place once Parliament has returned in September.  It would be fantastic if some of our MPs would organise them. There are  currently five weeks before Parliament reopens which would enable us to sign the active e-petitions that we agree with and indeed some of us could create new e-petitions today and beyond. It would be wonderful if some of our MPs could support them.