Referendum in the United Kingdom to abolish the Coronavirus Act.
The Parliament petitions site records 109,708 signatures for this petition, which closed on 28 March 2022. The Government responded on 15 October 2021.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Referendum in the United Kingdom to abolish the Coronavirus Act.
The government as a matter of urgency, to bring to Parliament for approval, legislation to have a referendum on the above subject within a maximum of six months.
It is important for the government and Parliament to enable the public to consent to, or abolish the impositions of this Act and its consequences.
The public deserve the right to have the final say in this Act because of the immense suffering which has been caused by the use of it.
This is especially so because it enables Government Ministers to issue decrees (statutes) without any Parliamentary approval or scrutiny.
There have been lockdowns, restrictions of freedoms and liberties, misuse of the emergency powers, excessive expenditure of public funds, mass testing, vaccine coercion of adults and children, vaccine certifications/passports, quarantine and much more. There has also been damage to the social and economic fabric of society.
Public say is vital.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 15 October 2021; the petitions site lists the Department of Health and Social Care as responsible. Its summary:
The Coronavirus Act has proved to be both necessary and highly successful in enabling governments across the UK to support people, and the public services they rely on, whilst combatting the pandemic.
The opening 323 words of the 734-word response:
The Coronavirus Act (‘the Act’) contains provisions which have enabled support to be given throughout the pandemic to individuals and businesses, and which have enabled public services such as the NHS to continue to function. The Act will continue to do this into the recovery period. Any Regulations made under this Act are subject to Parliamentary and/or judicial oversight. The Government does not plan to hold a referendum on the Act.
The Act helped set the foundation of the Government’s approach to combating the pandemic and has enabled action in five keys areas:
• increasing the available health and social care workforce
• easing and reacting to the burden on frontline staff
• supporting people
• containing and slowing the virus
• managing the deceased with respect and dignity.
Since its inception, the Act has ensured that the NHS had the capacity to deal with the peak of the virus by allowing the temporary registration of over 14,000 temporary nurses, other healthcare professionals and social workers.
It has also protected critical societal functions and ensured that they were still able to continue, such as providing courts with the ability to use video technology. Currently, these powers allow over 14,000 hearings per week to take place using remote technology across 3,200 virtual court rooms.
The Act has meant that we have been able to put in place effective support packages such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) for people and businesses. As at 16 August 2021, there have been 11.6 million unique jobs supported by the CJRS since its inception, with 1.3 million employers making a claim, totalling £68.5 billion in claims. SEISS also continued until the end of September 2021, with a fifth and final grant. As of 15 August 2021, £27.1 billion has been paid in SEISS grants in total. 2.9 million individuals had received a grant and 9.9 million total grants had been claimed.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 313, came from Wells.
108,400 of the signatures were from the UK and 1,308 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Wells | 313 |
| Wealden | 308 |
| Mid Sussex | 296 |
| Hove | 285 |
| Ealing Central and Acton | 277 |
| Hammersmith | 271 |
| Hastings and Rye | 258 |
| Bournemouth East | 257 |
| Upper Bann | 257 |
| Hornsey and Wood Green | 256 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| South East | 15,966 |
| London | 13,502 |
| North West | 12,664 |
| East of England | 10,383 |
| South West | 10,079 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 8,077 |
| Scotland | 7,873 |
| West Midlands | 7,738 |
| East Midlands | 7,000 |
| Wales | 4,952 |
| North East | 4,098 |
| Northern Ireland | 2,926 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on .
The Petitions Committee's summary of the debate:
The Petitions Committee has decided not to schedule a debate on this petition.
The Committee recognised the support that this petition has received. However, now the Government has removed all domestic restrictions in England relating to covid-19, and set out plans for expiring the remaining temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2019, the request of this petition has been largely overtaken by events.
You can read the Government's plans for expiring the remaining temporary provisions of the Coronavirus Act 2019 in the Government's strategy for living with covid-19, which was published on 21 February 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/597665.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
67a20e9e5eeb07e2… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.