Increase the character limit for petitions on UK Government & Parliament website

The Government has announced that it will only acknowledge petitions that are hosted on this site. The petition form on this site has a combined character limit of 880 across three fields: an average of 176 words overall per petition. This limit should be increased limit to at least 500 words.

This petition closed on 23 Jan 2021 with 27 signatures


Reticulating Splines

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In setting such a low character limit for the petitions on this site, the amount of background information, evidence, and references that a petitioner can provide is being limited. This can impact the robustness of the petition and stifle the petitioner's voice.

It is impossible to present an issue, argue the case, and provide compelling external sources within a word limit that averages out at 176 per petition. For reference - an academic essay is considered short at 2000 words.


Petition Signatures over time

Constituency Data

Reticulating Splines