12 November 2009
38.Section 12 makes provision about the petitions to which a petition scheme must apply. These are petitions which:
request the authority to take action or cease taking action;
are signed by at least the number of people specified in the petition scheme;
are not made under any other enactment. Petitions made successfully under other statutory provisions – for example, a petition requiring a local authority to hold a referendum on executive arrangements, pursuant to regulations made under section 34 of the Local Government Act 2000 do not come within the petition scheme; and
if made in electronic form, are made using the principal local authority’s e-petitions facility.
What amounts to “signature” for the purposes of an e-petition is a matter to be specified by authorities in their schemes. It may be, for example, that an authority will specify that entering an email address will constitute “signature” for this purpose.