7 January 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to introduce legislation allowing citizens to trigger referendums on national or local issues."
Details of Petition:
"British citizens should be able to trigger referendums on any issue where 2.5% of the population have signed a petition - for a national issue this would mean one million signatures and for a local ballot around 3-4,000. Such a system - called Citizens’ Initiatives - already operates in Switzerland, New Zealand, Hungary and 24 states in America."
Read the Government’s response
Section 116 of the Local Government Act 2003 created an express power for councils to hold local advisory polls or referendums on:
- any matter relating to the services for which it is responsible (including where these may be delivered by a third party), or
- the finance that it commits to those services, or
- any other matter that is one relating to the authority’s power under section 2 of the Local Government Act 2000 (authority’s power to promote well-being of its area).
Section 116 leaves local authorities free to decide how they gauge public opinion on the above issues. The local authority is in a position to judge what sample of persons or bodies is the most appropriate to approach, and in what way, having regard to local circumstances and cost effectiveness. Therefore, adequate means already exist in local government to gauge opinion on local matters.
Furthermore, legislation was passed in 2006 enabling local authorities to use the full electoral register in order to hold local polls and referendums under Section 116 of the Local Government Act 2003.
Under the UK constitutional arrangement of representative democracy, Parliament has both the right to make law and the responsibility to do so. However, in certain circumstances Parliament decides that particular laws should come into operation only after a referendum has been held. In practice, these have been held where there is a wholly new constitutional structure proposed - but not otherwise. For example, referendums have been held in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland so that people could decide whether they wanted a Parliament or Assembly for their country.
The Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 sets out the generic framework for the conduct of referendums in the UK, Scotland, Wales, England Northern Ireland or the Regions. The Act does not however set out any criteria for using referendums. Dedicated primary legislation is required for any particular referendum and responsibility for that Bill rests with whichever Department the Prime Minister designates.
As the UK Parliament is sovereign in the UK political system, it is for Parliament to decide whether or not to hold a referendum on any particular issue - and what the terms of that referendum should be. This is why each referendum requires a separate piece of enabling legislation.