Petition · past parliament

Remove all subsidies from food and drink for parliamentarians.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

Remove all direct and indirect subsidies on food and drink sold in the Palace of Westminster. Food and drink retail must be run on a commercial basis, with costs for premises, staffing and the product entirely covered by the pricing.
As parliamentarians have voted against increasing free school meals to end child food poverty, with MPs citing budget concerns and the need to for personal responsibility. The Palace of Westminster should remove all such subsidies - they are clearly more unnecessary and unethical in such a place.

Why it was rejected

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

We have published the following petition, which you might like to sign:

Increase food and drink prices for MPs in House of Commons catering venues: Increase food and drink prices for MPs in House of Commons catering venues

Catering services for the House of Commons are provided by an in-house team who do not provide a subsidised service, though the cost of running the service means that it runs at a loss. It is important to note that while in some venues the cost of providing the service exceeds the income received in sales, other venues in the Commons make a profit which contributes to reducing overall costs. The House of Commons publishes details of the cost of House of Commons catering services: https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/transparency-publications/hoc-transparency-publications/catering-services/transparency-reporting-catering-services/

Customers of the House of Commons Catering Services include some of the 650 MPs but also around 14,500 other pass-holders, many of whom are staff on lower wages that work irregular hours. In addition, members of the public and non pass holding visitors to Parliament also have access to these services. The irregular hours and the unpredictability of Parliamentary business contribute to increasing the net cost of providing a catering service. To offset this many of the restaurants, dining room facilities and their staff, are used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House. This is one of a number of measures used to reduce
costs.

Timeline

22 Oct 2020 Petition opened for signatures
30 Oct 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 30 Oct 2020

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