In November 2007 the House of Commons Procedure Committee launched an enquiry into e-petitions.  The Committee is now launching an e-consultation as part of that enquiry.  The web address for the site is http://forums.parliament.uk/e-petitions. 

This e-consultation aims to gather the views of the public and all interested parties.  The Committee wants to know whether people would use an e-petitioning system and, if so, what they would expect from it. 

The forum will run until Friday 15th February 2008.  After that all contributions will be taken into account with the Committee hoping to publish its report before Easter. 

Alan Campbell MP is urging people to give their views and said ‘With the rise of electronic media and the increasing use of the internet, parliament and MP’s have to be increasingly available via these mediums.  Although people still expect to retain the traditional methods of engaging with their MP through letters and written petitions, people now expect to be able to do the same online.  Developing an e-petitions forum on the parliament website which gives people the opportunity to do so can only be a good thing’.