Petition · past parliament

Remove all Houses of Parliament restaurant and bar subsidies.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

Remove all subsidies from all MPs and Peers in both Houses. MPs who voted against providing free school meal vouchers for children during the Covid-19 pandemic need to examine themselves and no longer take advantage of public money when they can't bring themselves to support hungry children.
Handsomely-paid MPs who cannot support hungry children getting proper meals during a pandemic crisis have no moral right to accept public money subsidies for their extensive choice of cheap meals in the Houses of Parliament. MPs currently making use of subsidised facilities who voted against school meals provisions are guilty of hypocrisy and self-interest. Remove the option for this to continue. In a modern society this is outdated privilege.

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

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.

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

Timeline

25 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.