How to create an e-petition

You can call for action from the UK Government or UK Parliament by creating and submitting an e-petition.

These are online petitions created on petition.parliament.uk.

Once a petition is published, it is open for 6 months to gather signatures.

If an e-petition receives 10,000 signatures, it will receive a response from the Government.
If it receives 100,000 signatures it may be debated in Parliament.

Creating and submitting an e-petition

You can start an e-petition on the website.

You’ll be asked to:

write a clear petition action
provide details about what you want to happen and why
get five supporters for your petition so it can be checked by the petitions team.

You’ll also need to make sure it meets the standards for petitions.

Who can create an e-petition?

British citizens and UK residents can create an e-petition.

What e-petitions can be about

E-petitions must ask for a clear action from the UK Government or Parliament.

The petition must also be about something the UK Government or Parliament is responsible for. For example, if it’s something your local council is responsible for, you’ll need to contact your local council instead.

Your petition will be rejected if it doesn’t meet these requirements.

Standards for e-petitions

E-petitions must also meet the standards for petitions before they can be accepted and published on the open petitions page.

Your petition will be rejected if it does not meet the standards for petitions.

Petitions created on other websites

The Government is only obliged to respond to e-petitions started on petition.parliament.uk. The Petitions Committee also only considers e-petitions started on petition.parliament.uk for debate.

How to start an e-petition

The e-petition form asks you to:

confirm you’re a British citizen or UK resident
summarise what you want the UK Government or Parliament to do
check there isn’t already a petition asking for a similar action
give more details about what you want to happen, and why.

You’ll then be asked to:

check your petition and make any final changes
sign your petition
confirm your full name, email address, and UK postcode
confirm whether you’d like to get updates about your petition
submit the form.

After you’ve finished creating your petition

When you’ve completed the form, you’ll receive an email with:

the full petition text
a link for your supporters to sign it.

How to get supporters for your petition

Share your petition with people who might be willing to support it.

They must be British citizens or UK residents.

They can confirm their support for your petition by clicking on the link.

You need five people to support your petition. At this stage, a maximum of 21 people can sign your petition.

Publication of your petition

Once five people have signed your petition, we’ll check it meets the standards for e-petitions.

If your petition meets the standards

Your petition will be published on the open petitions page. British citizens and UK residents will be able to sign your petition. Your petition will stay open for six months to gather signatures.

If your petition doesn’t meet the standards

If your petition doesn’t meet the standards for petitions, it will be rejected and will not be open to collect signatures.

You'll receive information about why this happened. You can start again with a new petition.

There are examples on the rejected petitions page. They can be viewed but not signed.

Once your petition has been published

What happens next depends on how many signatures your petition gets.

Petitions with 10,000 or more signatures

Petitions that get 10,000 signatures get a response from the UK Government.

The response is provided by the government department responsible for the petition topic. It appears on the same page as the petition, along with the publication date.

Petitions with responses from the UK Government are available on the government responses page.

Petitions with more than 100,000 signatures

The Petitions Committee has the power to arrange debates on petitions. All petitions that get 100,000 signatures will be considered for debate, and are usually debated.

The committee might decide not to arrange a debate on a petition. For example, this might happen if the issue:

has already been debated recently
is scheduled for debate in the near future.

If this happens, we’ll email you with further information.

The Petitions Committee

The Petitions Committee is a group of 11 MPs from government and opposition parties who consider e-petitions. The committee may contact you about the issue covered by your petition.

Contact the Petitions Committee team

The Petitions Committee team can:

answer queries about how Parliament handles petitions
help with questions about how to use this service.

They can't:

forward feedback to the people who started a petition
comment on the ideas raised in a specific petition.

Email: petitionscommittee@parliament.uk

Phone enquiries

Phone calls are handled by the House of Commons Enquiry Service. You can call them Monday to Friday, 10am to 12pm and 2pm to 4pm.

The enquiry service can help you to understand how Parliament handles petitions.

They can’t:

help with technical problems with this service
forward your feedback to the people who started a petition
comment on the ideas raised in a specific petition.

Phone: 0800 112 4272 (Freephone) or 020 7219 4272

Text Relay: 18001 followed by 020 7219 4272

Feedback

Give feedback about the UK Government and Parliament petitions website.

Further information

Paper petitions

You can ask your MP to present a paper petition to the House of Commons.

The rules for this type of petition are different. They can be about local issues, for example.

Petitions to recall Members of Parliament

Petitions to recall Members of Parliament are known as ‘recall petitions’.

They do not appear on this website and the Petitions Committee are not responsible for them.

Find out more about recall petitions on the Electoral Commission website.