Petition · past parliament

Protect Private Members Bills in Parliament from only 1 MP objecting to block it

Rejected 10 signatures

What the petition asks

Current parliamentary procedure allows 1 MP to shout “object” in the chamber duing a private members bill in order to block the process of the bill. In the UK Parliament we have 650 MPs how is it fair that if 649 MPs back the bill to become law how can 1 MP block the process this is wrong and unfair
On Friday 15 June 2018 a private members bill aiming to make upskirting a criminal offense was presented to Parliament by Liberal Democrat MP for Bath Wera Hobhouse and had support from all Parties and the Government but was de railed at second reading by Sir Christopher Chope who is the Conservative MP for Christchurch is Dorset this has delayed the process, 1 MP should not have the power to stop our parliamentarians from making laws to protect us.

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.

We're not sure exactly what you'd like the Government or Parliament to do. In particular, we're not sure how you'd like the rules to be changed.

You could start a new petition explaining clearly what you would like the Government or Parliament to do.

If you want to change the rules so that objections to Private Members' Bills need to be seconded, you may wish to sign this petition instead: Reform Private Member's Bill procedure so that an objection needs to be seconded

You may be interested to know that a group of MPs called the House of Commons Procedure Committee looked at the rules for Private Members Bills in 2016. You can read its report and recommendations here:

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmproced/684/68402.htm

You can watch MPs debate the Committee’s report on Parliament TV:

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/9ff57b89-d23c-44a7-85a3-5a9872c0ed31?in=16:02:20

You can read the debate on the Committee’s report here:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-04-18/debates/16041810000002/PrivateMembers%E2%80%99Bills

You can find out more about the different stages of a bill on the Parliament website:

http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/passage-bill/

Timeline

15 Jun 2018 Petition opened for signatures
20 Jun 2018 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 10
Status Rejected
Rejected 20 Jun 2018

Follow this petition

Sign in to get an email when the government responds, a debate is scheduled or held, or the petition closes.

Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.