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As outsiders are not permitted to address the House directly, petitions must be presented by Members. Therefore, groups and individuals with petitions for the House must enlist the aid of Members to have their petitions certified and presented. Members are not bound to present petitions and cannot be compelled to do so;[63] nevertheless, it is evident that many Members consider it a duty to present to the House petitions brought forward by citizens.[64] The Member, whose role it is to make the presentation on behalf of the petitioners, is not required to be in agreement with the content of any petition he or she may choose to present, and no such inference is to be drawn.[65] Once they have been certified by the Clerk of Petitions, petitions are ready for presentation to the House and are returned to the Members who submitted them. A certified petition is not to be altered or tampered with in any way; nor is the certificate to be removed. No rule or practice specifies a time period during which a petition must be presented following its certification; nor must a petition necessarily be presented by the Member who had it certified.[66] The Speaker has observed that various reasons might prevent a Member from presenting a certified petition expeditiously, but has also found merit in the view that petitions ought to be presented promptly after certification so that petitioners may have confidence that petitions brought to the House are answered as quickly as possible.[67] Petitions are presented by Members, including Ministers.[68] The Speaker traditionally does not present petitions, but instead asks the assistance of another Member to do so. This practice originated in the British House of Commons of the late eighteenth century, a time when petitions were routinely debated. Presenting petitions would have led to the Speaker participating in the proceedings of the House, which would have been at odds with the essential neutrality of the Chair.[69] In choosing to present a petition, a Member must be satisfied of its fitness and regularity, for it is a long‑standing rule of the House that the Member is answerable for any improprieties and impertinences therein.[70] In addition, the Member presenting a petition must endorse it (i.e., sign the back of the petition, or the back of the first page).[71] Certified petitions may be presented in two ways: orally during Routine Proceedings[72] or by filing them with the Clerk of the House during any sitting of the House.[73] In practice, the majority of petitions are presented during Routine Proceedings.[74]
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