Submitted on Friday 19th August 2022
Rejected on Monday 22nd August 2022
Current status: Rejected
Rejection code: no-action (see below for details)
Remove all subsidies in restaurants and bars in the British parliament .
On the 17/08/2022 it was announced that inflation has risen to 10.1 percent in the UK. Prices are up for almost everything including fuel, gas & electricity and food. People on average wages and below are very anxious and are really starting to struggle as prices soar and their wages stagnate.
Peers and MPs (all of whom are paid at least a basic, index linked salary of £84,144 pa) enjoy fine dining and drinking in the many bars and restaurants on the parliamentary estate. Prices in these establishments are heavily subsidised by the UK taxpayer. As a way of showing leadership and solidarity with the people they are elected to represent, MPs must very quickly vote to remove these subsidies. It is only by fully sharing in the peoples' pain, that MPs will properly understand it.
You can't sign this petition because it was rejected. But you can still comment on it here at Repetition.me!
The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:
The House of Commons Catering service does not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, while in other venues the cost of providing the service does exceed the income received in sales due to the irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business. The House of Commons publishes details of the cost of House of Commons catering services: www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/transparency-publications/hoc-transparency-publications/catering-services/transparency-reporting-catering-services/
Customers of the House of Commons Catering Services include some of the 650 MPs but also around 14,500 other pass-holders, many of whom are staff on lower wages that work irregular hours. In addition, members of the public and non pass holding visitors to Parliament also have access to these services. The irregular hours and the unpredictability of Parliamentary business contribute to increasing the net cost of providing a catering service. To offset this many of the restaurants, dining room facilities and their staff, are used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House. This is one of a number of measures used to reduce costs.
We could accept a petition calling for prices of food and drink in the House of Commons to be increased, either for all users or for Members of Parliament, if that's what you'd like to see happen.
18.218.218.230 Thu, 02 May 2024 18:56:42 +0100
