Please note, the public petitions process is a thorough and often lengthy process. It is not designed to respond to emergencies. If your petition is seeking emergency action or an urgent policy change to deal with COVID-19, we would advise you to contact your MSP or the Scottish Government in the first instance.

As explained in the Petitioning the Scottish Parliament guidance, when a petition is submitted, it is reviewed against the required criteria and any suggested changes are discussed with the petitioner, before it can be published.

Once published, briefings are requested (required) and signatures are collected (optional). It is only then that petitions can be scheduled for consideration by the Committee. In normal circumstances, given the high volume of new and continued petitions, it can take more than 3 months between publication of a petition and its first consideration by the Committee.

The current COVID-19 crisis is already impacting on these timescales and we are anticipating that this will continue for the immediate future.

The clerking team will try to progress all petitions as quickly as possible, however, we would ask for your patience at this time.