Petitions

If you feel strongly about a local issue, you may wish to start a petition. This can be a powerful tool for gathering local support and it can lead to a States debate, which could lead to a change in the Law.

Your petition must call for a specific action from Ministers or the States Assembly and be something that either the Government or the States Assembly is responsible for.

Every petition must show who is responsible for starting it. This may be one person, a group of people, or an organisation. A petition must set out both the background to the issue concerned and the action or remedy being sought. Remember that people won’t always know that much about the issue you’re petitioning about.

There are two types of petition to consider:

1. Online petition

2. Paper petition

Online petitions (or e-petitions)

Jersey residents aged 16 or over can start or sign an e-petition. For the petition to be published on the website, you need to get five people to support your petition.

The petition will then be reviewed by the States Greffe to ensure it meets the standards set out below. If your petition doesn't meet the standard, we will let you know why and try to help you find an alternative way of wording it that is compliant.

Once approved, the petition will remain open for six months. Within a week of being published, the petition will be shared on the States Assembly social media pages (Facebook, X and Instagram).

When a petition reaches 1,000 signatures, the relevant Minister is required to issue a response. The response will also be shared on the States Assembly social media pages.

A States Member or Scrutiny Panel might consider your petition for a debate before it reaches 5,000 signatures or might bring a proposition on the subject you have raised.

Petitions which reach 5,000 signatures are considered for an in-Committee debate by the States Assembly. The petition is shared on social media again if it reaches this stage. Please note, that a debate might not happen if the issue has already been debated recently or there’s a debate scheduled for the near future. If that’s the case, we’ll tell you how you can find out more about States Assembly debates on the issue raised by your petition.

States Members see all the petitions we publish.

Search all open online petitions, Ministerial responses or start your own petition today

You have six months to sign an online petition from the day it is published.

petitions.gov.je

How to start an online petition

Paper Petitions

Paper petitions must be presented to the States by a States Member. It is therefore best to make contact with a Member before finalising the wording of the petition and collecting signatures. The Member will then usually contact the States Greffe to make sure that the proposed wording is appropriate and that the petition is set out correctly. Any elected member of the States is able to present a petition and it may be appropriate to contact the Connétable or Deputy of the Parish concerned or, alternatively, to contact a States Member who is known to have a particular interest in the subject matter concerned.

Paper petitions only require one signature, although large petitions on controversial issues may attract many hundreds or even thousands of signatures. It is important to note that the details of the petition must be reproduced at the top of every sheet to be signed (if there is more than one sheet). Any sheet of signatures without the full details of the background and the action or remedy at the top will not be valid. The Data Protection information provided in the example petition must also be reproduced on every sheet to be signed (if there is more than one sheet).

Each person signing a petition must write his or her name and address clearly and enter his or her signature alongside. The address given must be sufficient to confirm the identity of the person signing and should be a complete postal address. It is not enough to insert a telephone number, postcode or email address instead of a full postal address. If the petitioner is a body corporate then the body’s common seal must be affixed to the petition instead of a signature.

Once the people responsible for the petition have finished collecting signatures the petition can be submitted to the States Greffe by the States Member concerned, at least 4 clear days before the day on which it is to be presented. For example, if it is to be presented on a Tuesday it must be given to the States Greffe on the preceding Thursday; so that Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be counted as the 4 clear days. Staff from the States Greffe are then required to count the number of people who have signed the petition. Anyone who has not entered their full name, address and signature will not be counted in the total.

The petition will be presented to the States during a States Meeting (normally a Tuesday). The petitioners are welcome to sit in the public gallery of the States Chamber to witness the presentation of the petition to the States. The Presiding Officer will announce that a petition is to be presented and the Member concerned will pass the petition to the Usher who will then hand it to the Greffier. The Member concerned is able to make a brief statement about the petition but no further debate or comment is allowed. That Member must also lodge a proposition relating to the action sought in the petition so that the matter can be debated by the States Assembly at a later date.

The petition must be referred to the Minister(s) who have responsibility for the issues concerned. That Minister(s) must then present a report to the Assembly on the petition within eight weeks. Once the report is presented to the Assembly, a debate can take place and the Assembly can vote on whether or not to support the proposed action sought in the petition.

Protecting your data

Before starting a petition, please read the States Greffe Privacy Policy.

If you have any other questions, please get in touch with the States Greffe at petitions@gov.je or call +441534 441020.

Standards for all petitions

Petitions must call for a specific action from Ministers or the States Assembly.
Petitions must be about something that the States Assembly is responsible for.
Petitions can disagree with Ministers and can ask for policies to be changed. Petitions can be critical of Ministers or the States Assembly.
We reject petitions that don’t meet the rules below. If we reject your petition, we’ll tell you why. If we can, we’ll suggest other ways you could raise your issue.

Petition rules

We'll have to reject your petition if:

It calls for the same action as a petition that’s already open
It doesn’t ask for a clear action from Ministers or the States Assembly
It’s about something Ministers or the States Assembly are not responsible for. This includes something that another Government or an independent organisation is responsible for
It’s defamatory or libellous, or contains false statements
It refers to a case that’s active in the courts
It contains material that may be protected by an injunction or court order
It contains material that could be confidential or commercially sensitive
It could cause personal distress or loss. This includes petitions that could intrude into someone’s personal grief or shock without their consent
It accuses an identifiable person or organisation of a crime
It names individual officials of public bodies, unless they are senior managers
It names family members of States Members or of officials of public bodies
It asks for someone to be given an honour, or have an honour taken away
It asks for someone to be given a job, or to lose their job. This includes petitions asking for a vote of no confidence in someone and petitions calling for someone to resign
It contains party political material
It’s nonsense or a joke
It’s an advert, spam, or promotes a specific product or service
It’s a Freedom of Information request
It contains swearing or other offensive language
It’s offensive or extreme in its views. That includes petitions that attack, criticise or negatively focus on an individual or a group of people because of characteristics such as their age, disability, ethnic origin, gender identity, medical condition, nationality, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation

We publish the text of petitions that we reject, as long as they’re not:

Defamatory, libellous or illegal in another way
About a case that is active in the courts or about something that a court has issued an injunction over
Offensive or extreme
Confidential or likely to cause personal distress. That includes petitions that could intrude into someone’s personal grief or shock without their consent; or
A joke, an advert or nonsense