Rejected petition Legalise the use of pepper spray for all adult British citizens.

Currently, pepper spray is illegal for citizens, but self-defence sprays such as the 'colour-dye identifier' sprays are legal.

I would like Parliament to legalise the use of pepper spray so that citizens have more effective options to protect themselves in public.

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Our safety has been lost to the huge rise of knife crime, the huge rise of sexual assaults, and the huge rise of pickpocketing. People are absolutely terrified, and one must wonder how differently certain incidents may have been if people could have properly defended themselves.
People need and deserve a stronger way to do this when faced with danger because it could be the only chance they have - there simply may not be time to contact the police. Colour-dye is something, but simply not enough.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign the following petition, which calls for similar action:

Legalise pepper spray in England: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/742673

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 2 November 2025
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