Questions
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any guidance is issued to central government departments on dealing with petitions submitted to them by the public. [HL1493]
No central guidance is issued. Individual departments have responsibility for the handling of petitions submitted to them.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answers by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon on 6 February (WA 156–57) and 9 February (WA 168), whether they have any plans or have had any discussions about requiring central government departments and the No. 10 Downing Street e-petition scheme to comply with the requirements in Part 1, Chapter 2, of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill. [HL1494]
This is a matter for individual departments that have responsibility for the handling of petitions submitted to them.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions HM Treasury has received in 2007–08 and 2008–09; what steps they have taken to publicise them; and, if they have not taken any such steps, whether they will put the text of the petitions received and the number of signatures in the Library of the House. [HL1497]
To ask Her Majesty's Government what HM Treasury's procedure is for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1498]
Information is not kept centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs. There are no arrangements for generally publicising petitions.
H M Treasury deals with each petition, and other representation received on a case-by-case basis as to receipt and processing and response.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs received in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; what steps the department has taken to publicise them; and whether they will put the text of the petitions received and the number of signatures in the Library of the House. [HL1547]
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1550]
The ASK Defra section of the Defra website uses the No. 10 e-petitions system. Defra e-petitions are sent to the No. 10 website where they are logged and responded to. Open and closed petitions and the Government response can be viewed on the No. 10 website.
Electronic environmental petitions are publicised on the No. 10 website. Records show 602 petitions in 2007 and 833 petitions in 2008.
Defra does not hold central records of petitions received on paper. Petitions are received either by the relevant Minister or by policy units, as part of stakeholder engagement. The petition organiser will receive a response.
Increasingly. organisations are using campaigning postcards—these are received centrally. 70,000 postcards on 101 campaigns were received in 2007 and 125,000 postcards on 97 campaigns in 2008.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Home Office received in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; what steps the department has taken to publicise them; and whether they will place the text of the petitions received and the number of signatures in the Library of the House. [HL1624]
The Home Office does not maintain central records of the number of petitions received, and the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. No arrangements are made to publicise the information contained in them, and there are currently no plans to place details of petitions received in the Library of the House.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Home Office has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1625]
No special arrangements exist for receiving petitions from members of the public. All petitions received in the Home Office are acknowledged. Following receipt they are allocated to the policy unit best able to deal with the subject matter of the petition. They would normally reply direct to the petition organiser within 20 working days.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Ministry of Justice received in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008; what steps the Ministry has taken to publicise them; and whether they will place the text of the petitions received and the number of signatures in the Library of the House. [HL1789]
The Ministry of Justice does not record the number of petitions it receives separately from other correspondence. There are no plans at present to either publicise the petitions it receives or to place copies in the Library of the House.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Ministry of Justice has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1790]
Petitions may be delivered to the headquarters building of the Ministry of Justice or sent there by post. Correspondence is recorded on the department's management system, assigned to the most appropriate officials and monitored to ensure that a detailed response is sent within 15 working days.