Petition · past parliament

Shutdown all vending machines to help stop the spread of the virus in hospitals.

Rejected 12 signatures

What the petition asks

Hospitals are a breading ground for COVID-19 and so, It's important we help prevent the spread of this virus and support the vending machine operators by forcing the companies to turn the vending machines off.
There is no way to guarantee that the machine would be cleaned throughly enough if it were to be used by someone with COVID-19 as not every machine is visited by the operator daily. Some machines only get seen to and cleaned once a week. Help stop the spread of COVID-19 and help the NHS reduce their already increasing workload by signing this petition to turn off ALL vending machines.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

The provision of catering in hospitals, including via vending machines, is a matter for individual hospitals and NHS trusts, not the Government or Parliament.

You could start a new petition calling on the Government to prohibit vending machines during the pandemic.

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/

Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/

Timeline

25 Mar 2020 Petition opened for signatures
1 May 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 12
Status Rejected
Rejected 1 May 2020

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