Working with other MPs and parliament | The INQUEST Skills and Support Toolkit

We thought that we were going insane, we couldn't understand what was happening to us, what had happened to my son. INQUEST has supported, enabled, educated and empowered and restored our faith in justice. We were given back our voice. – Family member

As well as working with your own MP you can try to influence others in parliament in a number of different ways;

a written petition can be presented to Downing Street. You can also start an e-petition. These are an easy, personal way for you to influence government and Parliament in the UK. You can create an e-petition about anything that the government is responsible for and if it gets at least 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in the House of Commons. To start an e-petition, more information can be found at www.epetitions.direct.gov.uk or to look more broadly at online petitions go to www.change.org.

Select Committees are a group of parliamentarians (both MPs who sit in the House of Commons and Peers who sit in the House of Lords). They check and report on different areas including the performance of government departments responsible for schools, hospitals, prisons and the police force to human rights. For example there is a Justice Committee which looks at the work of the Ministry of Justice, issues relating to prison, funding for legal representation and the treatment of different groups of people in the justice system.

MPs on a Committee decide what issues they are concerned about and hold inquiries into these, they may ask for written and/or oral evidence from interested organisations and members of the public. Anyone can write to the Committee to tell them about their experiences if they are relevant to their current inquiries. The results of these inquiries are public. Committees will make findings and recommendations in their reports and many require a response from the government.

A full list of the Committees and links to what they do and what they are currently examining and deadlines for sending written evidence can be found on the parliament website: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z.