Yes, thank you, Chair.
It's a pleasure to be invited to give evidence to the committee today.
If I could start with introductions, I'm Mike Winter, and I'm the head of office for the Leader of the House of Commons, the Right Honourable William Hague, MP. I have overall responsibility for ensuring delivery of parliamentary reform policy, including on e-petitions, for the Leader of the House of Commons on behalf of the U.K. government.
My colleague, Chris Shaw, is a parliamentary adviser providing procedural advice to the U.K. government on secondment from the House of Commons where he serves as a clerk.
We appear before you as officials of the U.K. government with the support of the minister.
We should point out that, following a debate in May of this year, we are currently working with the Procedure Committee of the House of Commons on an e-petitions system, which is jointly owned between the House of Commons and the government. We expect a report from the Procedure Committee within the next few weeks followed by consideration and decisions of the House of Commons. Given we're in the middle of the process of negotiations you will understand if we may not be able to give definitive answers to some of your questions today.
I know you're keen to hear from technical experts. I hope the committee would be willing for us to supplement our evidence with written evidence from the Government Digital Service, who run the technical aspects of the system, should that be necessary.
I'm happy to go into questioning. Thank you.