E-petition debate on financial education
16 December 2011
In response to an e-petition MPs debate a motion relating to financial education. MPs Justin Tomlinson, Andrew Percy and Mark Garnier of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People appeared before the Backbench Business Committee to request this debate.
This is a topic of major public interest on which the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People have published a report. It has also been the subject of an e-petition entitled 'Make financial education a compulsory part of the school curriculum'.
Watch the debate and read a transcript
The debate took place on Thursday 15 December 2011 in the House of Commons. Watch the debate on Parliament TV and read the views expressed by MPs in Commons Hansard:
- Parliament TV: E-petition debate on financial education
- Commons Hansard: E-petition debate on financial education
How this subject was selected
The subject for this debate was determined by the Backbench Business Committee following representations by Justin Tomlinson, Andrew Percy and Mark Garnier at a public meeting of the committee on 22 November 2011.
Watch the meeting where this debate was decided upon on Parliament TV and read an uncorrected transcript of the session.
- Parliament TV: Backbench Business Committee Tuesday 22 November 2011
- Transcript of representations made on 22 November 2011
E-Petitions
E-Petitions which have collected more than 100,000 signatures on the Government's e-petitions website are sent to the House of Commons. The Office of the Leader of the House of Commons checks the petition against the terms and conditions for e-petitions and the rules of the House of Commons.
The Backbench Business Committee can only consider an e-petition for a debate if an MP comes to make a case for the subject to be debated.
- E-petition: Make financial education a compulsory part of the school curriculum (external site)
- HM Government's e-petitions website (external site)
- Guidance for e-petitioners
Backbench Business Committee
The Backbench Business Committee meets every week to consider requests for debates from any backbench Members of Parliament on any subject. This includes subjects suggested by constituents where there is no e-petition, or where there is a traditional paper petition.
When considering petitions, the committee will follow its usual procedure of hearing a sponsoring Member or Members of Parliament making the case for a debate.
The committee will only be able to schedule a debate on a petition if several Members of Parliament tell the committee that they will take part in the debate. The committee then has to decide how to allocate the very limited Parliamentary time it has at its disposal; demand always outstrips supply. The committee's meetings are always conducted in public and can be watched on Parliament TV.