Questions
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Department of Energy and Climate Change received in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009; 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. [HL1548]
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Department of Energy and Climate Change has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1549]
Petitions will be received and acknowledged by DECC in the same way as other correspondence received by the department. It is also general practice to send a response to the issues raised to the originator of the petition. Although the department records the number of letters it receives, it does not count the numbers of petitions separately. The text of petitions and the number of signatures could be provided only at disproportionate cost, again because they are not stored separately from other forms of correspondence.
The department is, however, currently considering options for handling petitions going forward, and has recently placed a link from the consultation section of DECC's new website to the e-petitions system on the Number 10 site.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many petitions the Department for Work and Pensions 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. [HL1791]
The information requested is not available. Information on all the petitions received by the department is not held centrally.
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government what procedures the Department for Work and Pensions has for receiving, acknowledging, dealing with and responding to petitions that it receives from members of the public. [HL1792]
There are no specific procedures for dealing with petitions. Petitions from members of the public are handled as part of normal correspondence and a response will be sent to the organisation or individual who sent in the petition. It would be for the organisation or individual to communicate the reply to the signatories on the petition.