This website is designed to allow as many people in the UK as possible to put forward their ideas on what laws and regulations we should do away with. Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, along with the rest of the Coalition Government, invite you to collaborate on ideas for freedom and change.

This will form an important part of our commitment to cutting red tape, repealing unnecessary laws and supporting civil liberties. Your ideas will inform initiatives such as the proposed Freedom Bill and the streamlining of regulation, particularly for businesses and other organisations.

The site currently groups ideas into three important policy areas that affect your freedom:

These policy areas sit at the heart of Our Programme for Government. We collected 9,500 public comments on our programme in less than three weeks, so we know these issues matter to you as well.

When will the discussions end?

At the moment, there's no definite end date to this process. We'll assess its popularity and success in collecting ideas at regular intervals.

If this dialogue between the public and the Government proves popular, then this could become a common way of the Government working more openly, and responding more regularly to public feedback.

We may temporarily close some of the themes at certain times to allow us to act on the ideas that have been submitted. We may even add new themes if there's enough demand.

What we’ll do with your ideas

The Government is committed not only to opening up the discussion on the restoration of citizens’ fundamental freedoms, but to responding to and acting as appropriate on the ideas submitted through this site.

Your ideas, comments and ratings will directly inform the Government’s policy making. Some of your proposals could even end up making it into bills before Parliament. We’ll consider your ideas on civil liberties for the proposed Freedom Bill later in 2010. We may also include ideas on unnecessary laws in a future bill.

We promise to read and respond to your ideas and comments, although we won't be able to respond individually to everything submitted.

But we won’t only respond to the most popular ideas (those ranked the highest or those with the most comments). We may also respond to and make use of ideas that are less popular but which we identify as having clear value – submitting an idea of a more specialist nature will not harm your chances of government action.

The Deputy Prime Minister is leading the process of keeping you informed about what’s happening after you participate in this dialogue. We’ll signpost response updates on this site so you can find out how departments are using your feedback.

How we’ll respond

All ideas and comments will also be aggregated by discussion theme, and the most relevant government department will respond. 

We’ll also look to respond in other ways, which could include:

  • direct feedback on this dialogue (in the form of comments)
  • video messages from the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister
  • video messages from a department’s Secretary of State
  • invitations to idea creators to meet members of the Government and interested groups to discuss the ideas they submitted
  • emails sent directly to all those expressing support
  • information on DirectGov and major news channels

Please understand that we won't able to respond to ideas that relate to laws and regulations that are outside the remit of central government – including those that fall under the jurisdiction of Europe, devolved administrations or local authorities.

Other ways you can get involved

We'll continue to offer you the opportunity to collaborate with us and help shape and change government policy and our society.

At the moment we're also asking for your ideas on how you think we can reshape how government works and cut public spending. To have your say, visit the Spending Challenge.

Departments will also publish their structural reform plans shortly. Members of the public and interested parties will be given an opportunity to feedback on these plans and hold the Government to account over its programme.