{"links":{"self":"https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/759710.json"},"data":{"type":"petition","id":759710,"attributes":{"action":"Parliament: End MPs subsidised bars restaurants & perks","background":"While their constituents have been forced to endure austerity cuts, low wages, & meagre state pensions, our MPs are not suffering at all. This disparity has to stop!\r\n\r\nIf ever there were visual evidence at one of the pinnacles of our massive rich and poor divide rotten class system, this is it.","additional_details":"Austerity has never been an economic necessity, it has always been a political choice made by the right wing, to take from the poor, and give to the rich.\r\n\r\nOur MPs are elected to parliament to work on behalf of their constituents, and not to feather their own nests at our expense. \r\n\r\nWe have a race to the bottom competitive deregulated low waged, free market system.\r\n\r\nWhile our MPs live a working life of tax payer subsidised luxury.\r\n\r\nIts time it was ended.","committee_note":null,"state":"rejected","signature_count":12,"created_at":"2026-02-02T18:13:13.514Z","updated_at":"2026-03-09T16:51:52.084Z","rejected_at":"2026-03-09T16:51:52.087Z","opened_at":null,"closed_at":null,"moderation_threshold_reached_at":"2026-02-02T23:45:50.000Z","response_threshold_reached_at":null,"government_response_at":null,"debate_threshold_reached_at":null,"scheduled_debate_date":null,"debate_outcome_at":null,"creator_name":null,"rejection":{"code":"no-action","details":"Catering services for the House of Commons are provided by an in-house team who do not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, referred to as contribution because it contributes to reducing overall costs. In other venues, the cost of providing the service does exceed the income received in sales due to the irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business. The contribution or cost of each venue is calculated by subtracting the food and operational costs from the catering sales. Rather than a subsidy, the House monitors the contribution or cost of each catering venue, which include cafeterias, dining rooms, restaurants and bars. Prices of food and drink are regularly benchmarked against appropriate external comparators.\r\n\r\nYou can read more about this here: https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/freedom-of-information/information-we-already-publish/house-of-commons-publication-scheme/catering-services/house-of-commons-cost-of-catering/\r\n\r\nWe can't accept petitions about catering in the House of Lords as that is the responsibility of the House of Lords."},"government_response":null,"debate":null,"departments":[],"topics":[]}}}