I thought I would draw your attention to paragraph 41 of the committee's report. It noted:
The essence of the system which has already been set up, [the government's system] and on which our proposed system is therefore based, is one of direct access to the institution to which the petition is directed....
The system, which the public is already familiar with, is able to petition directly, without the intervention of a member of Parliament. The committee, as the chair said, did discuss this issue, but decided that it would be wrong to retreat from that direct access to the institution, which is already in place.