📊 Public Petitioning Statistics

The vertical scale is linear from 0 to 120,000, keeping the full historical context visible. E-petition measures are shown as reported and are not treated as directly comparable totals.

The logarithmic scale makes the low modern paper figures visible alongside the much larger historical totals. E-petition measures are shown as reported and are not treated as directly comparable totals.

“Received”, “submitted”, “accepted and published”, “rejected” and “opened” describe different stages or measures. They are kept distinct rather than added together.

1. Public Petitions and Early Day Motions — parliamentary procedure report
2. Petitioning Parliament and Government — House of Commons Library research briefing
3. Petitions in the UK — House of Commons Library research briefing
4. 2016–17 Sessional Return — official sessional record for e-petitions opened
5. UK Parliament petitions database — current petitions archive and database

Compiled from the supplied Parliament-related datasets, report extracts and source list. The figures are presented as reported; no missing historical values have been estimated.

These are true Private Bills: legislation petitioned for by a named railway, local authority, utility, harbour or other outside body for powers affecting a specific undertaking. They are not Private Members' Bills, and no missing years have been estimated.

The historical and modern tables describe different reporting series: deposited or examined bills in the first table, and House of Commons introductions in the later returns. They are shown together for context, not added together.

Interactive note: the public series is deliberately inactive for pointer tracking. Move across the plot to make the blue Private Bills marker follow the sampled Private Bills line. Both series share the same 1900–2026 time frame, beginning at the first reported Private Bills point. Lines connect reported sample points only; no missing values are inferred.

This linear view preserves the original public-petition scale. The Private Bills series is therefore compressed near the baseline; use the logarithmic comparison above to inspect the smaller Private Bills values in detail.

1. Frequently Asked Questions: Researching Parliamentary Papers — The Inner Temple Library; explains that Private Members’ Bills are introduced by an individual MP or Peer, while Private Bills are presented to Parliament as petitions.
2. Local and personal acts of Parliament (United Kingdom) — Wikipedia; historical context for private, local and personal Acts.
3. Private Bills in Parliament: House of Commons Background — House of Commons Library; principal categories included public works and transport schemes, permissions for divorce and other specific undertakings.
4. Legislation: Parliamentary Papers — University of Exeter LibGuides; Private Bills come from outside Parliament and are proposed by local authorities, companies or other bodies.
5. Successful private members’ bills since 1983 — House of Commons Library; included as a distinction source and not used as a Private Bills count.
6. Private Members’ Bills: Flawed But Occasionally Successful — PoliticsHome; included as a distinction source and not used as a Private Bills count.
7. Nobler imaginings and mightier struggles — SAS-Space; discusses Private Bills and provisional orders made by Government departments.

The contextual sources above help distinguish true Private Bills from Private Members’ Bills. The numerical series remains limited to the reported Private Bills returns shown in the tables.