The Petitions Committee and Women and Equalities Committee publish their report "High heels and workplace dress codes", revealing the troubling experiences of workers affected by discriminatory dress codes.

Government Response

• High heels and workplace dress codes: Government Response to the First Joint Report of the Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee of Session 2016–17
• High heels and workplace dress codes: Government Response to the First Joint Report of the Petitions Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee of Session 2016–17 (PDF 157 KB)

Following an e-petition, which was started on petition.parliament.uk and reached over 14,000 signatures, the Petitions Committee investigated the subject of funding for brain tumour research.

The Petitions Committee is today launching an inquiry into fireworks.

It has decided to do this because hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions through the petitions.parliament.uk site about fireworks over the last three years.

A current petition by Amy Cullen, which has been signed by nearly 300,000 people, calls for a ban on the sale of fireworks to the public and for fireworks displays to be restricted to licenced venues.

Other recent popular petitions have raised concerns about the noise and nuisance caused by fireworks and the effects on children, veterans suffering with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and animals, for example.

In the first stage of the inquiry, the Committee is asking for written evidence from lots of different organisations and groups, including central and local government, the emergency services, medical professionals, health and safety and accident prevention specialists, people who work with or sell fireworks, and cultural and religious groups for whom fireworks often have a special significance. Information from the written evidence – and from a survey of people who’ve signed petitions about fireworks – will be used to plan more ways for people to tell us what they think and a series of oral evidence hearings later this year.

The inquiry will lead to a report with recommendations to the Government. The report will be debated in the House of Commons and the Government will have to respond to the Committee's recommendations.

The Petitions Committee will question Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Primary Care, Steve Brine, on Tuesday 27 February 2018  about Government's failure to publish key report about vaccines.

Draft recommendations for consultation

• Read the full report
• Read the full report (PDF 123KB)
• Large print format
• Easy read

Government response

• Read the full report
• Read the full report (PDF 194KB)
• Large print format

The Committee looked into the following questions:

• What's the impact of online abuse, especially on people with disabilities?
• Who’s responsible for protecting people from online abuse? Are technology companies doing enough?
• How well does the current law protect disabled people from online abuse? Does the law need to be changed?
• How should we define online abuse? Where’s the line between legitimate freedom of expression, behaviour that is against the terms and conditions of social media sites, and abuse that should be against the law?
• What support is there for victims of online abuse?

The Committee heard from people with disabilities and other experts in the field.

The new Petitions Committee has agreed a provisional set of working methods explaining how it will consider petitions.

The working methods cover the following questions:

• When will the Committee consider each petition?
• How will the Committee decide which petitions will be debated?
• How will the Committee facilitate public engagement in debates?
• How will the Committee know whether MPs are interested in debating a petition?
• When will the Committee refer petitions to select committees?
• What else will the Committee do with petitions?
• Will the Committee consider petitions hosted on other e-petitions sites?

The Committee is now opening these proposals for consultation. It will consider the views it receives and publish the results of its consultation, including the responses it receives, in the autumn.

• Read the full proposals

The Petitions Committee publishes its report "Funding for research into brain tumours", revealing the distressing experiences of people whose lives have been affected by the disease, as well as exploring the reasons behind the historic underfunding of research under successive governments.

Government response

• Read the Government response to funding for research into brain tumours
• Read the Government response to funding for research into brain tumours (PDF 209 KB)

The Petitions Committee, working jointly with the Health Committee, investigated the subject of the meningitis B vaccine, after an e-petition calling for it to be offered to all children was signed by 823,341 people.

The e-petition calls on the UK Government to extend the provision of the meningitis B vaccine to all children.

• Petitions Committee Meningitis B vaccine inquiry page

The Petitions Committee decided to hear evidence about grouse shooting before a debate on the subject in Parliament.

• Petitions Committee inquiry page on grouse shooting