Step-by-step guide to making petitions

Step 1: Create your petition

You will be asked to give your name, organisation (if you represent one), address and email address, and the title and text of your petition. You will also be asked to give a short, one-word name for your petition. This will be used to give your petition a unique URL (website address) that you can use to publicise your petition.

You will be able to specify a start and finish date for your petition, and we can host your petition for up to 12 months.

Step 2: Submit your petition

Once you have submitted your petition, you will receive an email asking you to click a link to confirm. Your proposed petition will then be delivered to the Downing Street inbox.

Step 3: Petition approval

Officials at Downing Street will check your petition to make sure that it meets the basic requirements set out in our acceptable use policy and the Civil Service code.

If for any reason we cannot accept petition, we will write to you to explain why. You will be able to edit and resubmit your petition if you wish.

Once your petition is approved, we will email you to confirm a date for it to appear on the website, usually within three working days.

If we cannot approve your amended petition, we will write to you again to explain our reason(s).

Any petitions that are rejected or not resubmitted will be published on this website, along with the reason(s) why it was rejected. Any content that is offensive or illegal or clearly spam will be left out. Every petition that is received will be acknowledged on this website.

Step 4: Petition live

Once your petition is live, you will be able to publicise the URL you chose when you created your petition, and anyone will be able to come to the website and sign it.

They will be asked to give their name and address and an email address that we can verify. The system is designed to identify duplicate names and addresses, and will not allow someone to sign a petition more than once. Anyone signing a petition will be sent an email asking them to click a link to confirm that they have signed the petition. Once they have done this, their name will be added to the petition.

Your petition will show the total number of signatures received. It will also display the names of signatories, unless they have opted not to be shown.

Step 5: Petition close

When a serious petition closes, provided there are 100 signatures or more, officials at Downing Street will ensure you get a response to the issues you raise. Depending on the nature of the petition, this may be from the Prime Minister, or he may ask one of his Ministers or officials to respond.

We will email the petition organiser and everyone who has signed the petition via this website giving details of the Government’s response.

E-Petitions

BETA TEST

The petitions system is currently in a public beta test. This means that users are welcome to sign and create petitions, but we will be changing the site frequently over the next few weeks in response to feedback. If you'd like to tell us any improvements we could make to the functioning of the petitions system, please contact [email protected].

Update from No10, 21/11/2006: The e-petitions beta test phase is continuing and several improvements have been made to the site following suggestions from users, such as the addition of a search facility. A particular issue we are considering is what to do about petitions which are identical or very similar to petitions already on the site. So far we have not rejected most very similar petitions, in order to allow users to express their views in their own words. However, the increasing number of petitions which are very similar congests the site and probably dilutes the voice of some petitioners. We are considering ways to adapt the site to deal with this. Meanwhile we would encourage users, before creating a new petition, to use the search box to see if they would like to sign an existing one instead.

Main menu