Building a substansive petition system
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Deploying a substantive petition system (World Bank, Morocco, 2014)
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Building a substansive petition system
- 1. Building a Substantive Petition System Fraser Henderson December 2013
- 2. Formative proposal “2007: scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” "whoever came up with this idea might be a prat" 1.7 million signatures
- 3. “2007: scrap the planned vehicle tracking and road pricing policy” Response: Email from PM In his reply, the PM sets out the government's views on national road pricing, stressing that no decision has yet been made. Mr Blair says he sees the petition and his email as "the beginning, not the end" of the debate.
- 4. What was wrong? DISCONNECTED COMMUNICATIONS ROLE OF PETITIONS Bypasses Parliament Planned policy Constitutional rights No power to rebuke No power to force response No triggers No plans Factually incorrect Misleading “Nanny knows best”
- 5. “2006: Don’t remove Banksy painting on park street” “prosecute the artist who has done this to a listed building" 3187 signatures
- 6. “Don’t remove Banksy painting on park street”
- 7. What went well? CONNECTED COMMUNICATIONS SPECIFIC ISSUE Petitions Committee Officer Not complex Petition Scheme Help with wording Connect to decision making timetable Local Easy decision
- 8. Commonalities •Petitioners of any age •Official Languages Any language •Dealt with in open •Some topic exclusions •Safeguards (e.g. duplicates) •Obligation to receive and read petitions Duty to respond
- 10. When is participation effective? CLEAR model
- 11. Set Realistic Expectations TOPICS AND EXCLUSIONS COMMON UNDERSTANDING
- 12. Controls TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT Where do I submit my petition? What format? Guides for public and elected members What to do with repeat petitions? Who can petition? HEARING PETITIONS CHECKS Validity Progress
- 13. Well Equipped POWERS RESOURCES Call to account Help petition organisers Study Visits Pre-petition phase Full debate Oral evidence…
- 14. Good Communications INFORMED STRUCTURED Outcomes versus output Petition Prayer Petition Progress TRANSPARENCY
- 15. Create Fair Conditions REQUIREMENTS PARTICIPATION REASONABLE Attainable thresholds Age Timetable Submit without fear Language Redress Nationality
- 16. Are Reflective 2007 = 1,506 Europetitions Environmental issues, water, etc Fundamental rights Urbanisation Education & cultural issues Social Affairs & Discrimination Internal Market & Consumers Health Justice Transport issues & Infrastructure Property & Restitution 288 226 131 103 207 192 105 99 88 72
- 17. Governors and Government must conceptualise petitions as..
- 18. Key Questions •Who can petition (including legal persons, elected representatives)? •Which tiers of government will accept or be governed by valid petitions? •How can petitions be submitted? •Are there any topics to be excluded? •How will process of hearing petitions be handled? •What powers will be triggered? •Extended right to reasonable timeframe and response?
- 19. "A successful petition doesn't have to be one that achieves its aim. If people see the issue is being taken seriously then they will be happy." - Dr P.Cruickshank (Napier University)
- 20. Building a Substantive Petition System Fraser Henderson December 2013
Editor's Notes
- Substantive petition system compared to tokenistic one Based on a review of petition systems from experienced institutions The great news about the petition as a democratic instrument is that it is a rare example of ‘build it and they will come’. Allow citizens to challenge government in a way that cannot go unanswered. Estimated in UK 10% population have signed one. Bad news is that it is quite a blunt instrument. Little or no opportunities for discourse between petitioners and does not capture true sentiment. Little evidence to suggest a tool for ‘usual suspects’. (Germany and Scotland).
- Interesting to look at the journey of a petition and a few examples of good and bad experiences. More signatures than any other on the no.10 website A 2007 less than a third of local authorities guarantee a response to petitions. Fewer councils make information available about how to petition
- Response from PM. Got tagged to every subsequent debate. Natural occurrence. Good for low level petitions. 2008: Lost referendum (79% oppose) June 2009 : Ideas scrapped Government didn’t really listen and embarrassing defeat
- Target for petition was wrong. Disconnected from Parliament. No power to get a response from appropriate department. Confusion between government and parliament. The office had few resources for dealing with petitions – as it stood petition wording was flawed in that it was fiction,n not fact. Whole system raised expectations – stock response of nanny state
- Bristol is city in south west UK with population of ½ million. In 2006 world famous street artist painted this on a listed building overnight. Local elected member called for it to be cleaned off and artist prosecuted. Petition Ran for 13 weeks. 60% within the Bristol area 1.5% from outside the UK
- Triggered a debate. Ran a poll. Local authority considered the tourism potential, cultural perspective and contribution to local economy. Saved it.
- Bristol had a petition scheme, committee and mechanism for dealing with it. Inclusive and considerate of non natives Office who helps petitions with wording and scheduling. Progress. Issue was salient – easy to tackle. Not complex or interwoven.
- You can think of these values from citizen perspective. CLEAR model for effective participation. CAN DO – Framing and understanding, issuing a scheme Liked to – . Easy, Friendly process - Local level more beneficial. Scotland you can send in post for free. Enabled to – Right to petition. Instrument open to all (non residents, non voting age) Asked to – Going to be down to merits of petition organisers in marketing. Stimulate your own petition to kick things off! Responded to – respond to petitions & fair process
- Let’s look at these values in detail. What can you petition about? Matters under the authority although Canadian – exclude spend of public funds. UK licensing. Sometimes might be decisions already made! Most lax case is Italy – anything! Meaningful answer. How to the process works – who makes decisions etc – messages entrenched. Scottish parliament – go onto their website have an excellent video Welsh parliament – Easy to read booklets Having a voice, being heard. Getting a timely response
- Petition clerk or office to communicate with petition organiser. Help them. Some sort of delegated powers -study visits -calling to account -invoking response -carry out research -trigger wider debate Parliament doesn’t want to be overloaded. Incidentally committees of around 7 members (expert or non expert group).
- Communication is key to fair process How the petitioner is kept informed and wording of official responses. ‘Openness’ Some systems allow petition organisers to give oral evidence…welsh system…. Transparency - Petitions logged and archived. Even log of those which get rejected. Publish outcomes to all.
- Responsive and inclusive. Not too restrictive. Thresholds or definition of petition, don’t make too difficult to attain. 99.9% of all petitions fail to reach 100,000 target to trigger debate in UK system, Language accepted. No age.
- Must have some sort of monitoring. Here you can see Europetitions in 2007. What are people saying? Is process OK? Are any changes needed?
- Leve you with this nice quote here from P.Cruinshank. Research at Napier University, Scotland – involved in Europetitino project and Scottish Parliament system. Wrote a paper about efficacy as a factor in petitioning Message is simple – Petitions are a form of advocacy democracy – success for the instrument is all about process integrity and contentment for petitioners.