E-petition debate on children's cardiac surgery at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre
22 October 2012
The Backbench Business Committee scheduled a debate on Monday 22 October 2012 on the children’s cardiac surgery at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre at Glenfield, Leicester. Sir Edward Garnier applied to the Backbench Business Committee to request this debate.
The Committee heard this was the subject of an e-petition which has received over 100,000 signatures and a topic of interest to Members across the House.
Watch the debate and read a transcript
Watch the debate on Parliament TV and read the views expressed by MPs in Commons Hansard.
- Parliament TV: General debate on e-petition relating to children's cardiac surgery at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre at Glenfield, Leicester
- Commons Hansard: General debate on e-petition relating to children's cardiac surgery at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre at Glenfield, Leicester
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-petitions and the Backbench Business Committee
- E-petition: E-petition relating to children’s cardiac surgery at the East Midlands Congenital Heart Centre at Glenfield, Leicester (external site)
- HM Government's e-petitions website (external website)
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.