Petition · past parliament

Remove the government mandating of wearing facemasks in Shops and public places.

Rejected 13 signatures

What the petition asks

Wearing a facemask should be optional NOT mandated! This is taking away freedoms and rights of the general public and is not based on evidence from a reliable source. Masks do little to stop transmition and in fact can make you ill. Healthy people should not be forced to wear one!
There is much information showing that wearing a face mask to protect against Covid 19 specifically, has little, if any value and can in fact be harmful. Masks designed for use in contaminated environments expels toxins without filtering. Surgical ones are for sterile environments having little effect outside of this and are potentially virus spreaders when used incorrectly. A home made one has no protection at all. Breathing your own toxins is bad for you. We MUST have the right to choose.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

You may wish to sign some of these petitions:

Don't make the wearing of face masks compulsory in public places in England: Don't make the wearing of face masks compulsory in public places in England

Repeal the decision to implement compulsory face coverings in English shops: Repeal the decision to implement compulsory face coverings in English shops.

Make the use of masks on public transport voluntary and not mandatory: Make the use of masks on public transport voluntary and not mandatory

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 find 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: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

Timeline

15 Jul 2020 Petition opened for signatures
21 Jul 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 13
Status Rejected
Rejected 21 Jul 2020

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