Petition · past parliament

End subsidised food and alcohol in the Houses of Parliament and House of Lords.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

To make resturants and bars within the House of Commons and House of Lords profitable.
MP's and Lords resturants and bars within their perspective houses are subsidised by the tax payer. As MP's and Lords already receive a wage and paid expenses from the taxpayer, having subsidised meals at a time of a national crisis is unaffordable.
MP's and Lords need to lead from the front and make those bars, etc, profitable.

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 petitions, 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

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

Catering and expenses in the House of Lords is a matter for that House, not the Government or House of Commons.

The House of Commons Catering service does not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, while in other venues the cost of providing the service does exceed the income received in sales due to the irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business. 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

24 Oct 2020 Petition opened for signatures
3 Nov 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 3 Nov 2020

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