UK Cluster : Local ePetitions

1Interim Review, Brussels, 10 Feb 10, www.EuroPetition.eu

Birmingham active for 6 months

5 Live8 Submitted1 Concluded

1341 Signatures

Bristol and RBK already active since 2005

Bristol – 11 Active since 01.01.2010

Kingston – 2 Active since 01.01.2010

North Lincolnshire active for 1 month

2 Live16 Signatures

Marketing Effort

2Interim Review, Brussels, 10 Feb 10, www.EuroPetition.eu

• Presence at national conferences (e.g. Headstar eDemocracy’09) – which led to BBC coverage. Stimulus for article in Computing Which? Magazine.

• Items in national periodicals, local newspapers and council magazines.

• Localised event e.g. Lincoln LocalGov Camp (Oct’09), Technologies for participation (Manchester – Nov’09).

Parallel activities

3Interim Review, Brussels, 10 Feb 10, www.EuroPetition.eu

In doing this it is supporting the UK legal duty related to having an ePetition facility. Namely:-

- Advice on the implementation cycle

- Creation of a petition data standard for interoperability

- Specific guidelines for local authorities on procuring and running an ePetition facility

Bristol City Council is running a national community of practice for petitioning which now has 66 members from local authorities across the UK. This has a EuroPetition sub-community.

EuroPetition status

4Interim Review, Brussels, 10 Feb 10, www.EuroPetition.eu

Local Authorities in the UK are in a state of ‘EuroPetition readiness’ but have yet to open their EuroPetition facilities. Some thought has already gone into marketing preperations.

One early EuroPetition referral to Bristol City Council from a London Borough Council:-

November 2009

 ” We, the supplicants of this petition and members of the drafting committee being appalled, shocked and surprised by the treatments that some persons with disabilities have received from Her Majesty’s Government in right of the borough of Lewisham in London believe that Mr. Matthieu Chatelin has been fundamentally deprived of his human rights and dignity.”

Evaluation

5Interim Review, Brussels, 10 Feb 10, www.EuroPetition.eu

Phase 1 : Baseline questionnaire. Take up activities included:-

•Distribution to 1,500 citizens on the Bristol ePanel

•Distribution to over 1,000 citizens in Kingston ePanel

•Local magazine article and website links in N.Lincolnshire covering entire regional population of 157,000

46 Completed questionnaires so-far

Next Steps

6Interim Review, Brussels, 10 Feb 10, www.EuroPetition.eu

1. National launch event for EuroPetition facility (via UK cluster coordinator)

2. Contact with regional offices in Europe

3. Facilitation of the EuroPetitions

4. Continued input on evaluation workstream

5. Organise UK cluster meeting #3