Gordon Brown wants to make more use of web petitions for the public to influence Parliament.

In a green paper on constitutional reform, Brown highlighted the 10 Downing Street web site e-petition system, which has processed 22,300 petitions of which 7,500 are live with more than 4.4 million signatures.

‘I encourage this House to agree a new process for ensuring consideration of petitions from members of the public,’ said Brown in a statement to MPs.

The consultation paper added: ‘The government believes that people should be able to petition the House of Commons with as much ease as they are currently able to petition the prime minister, and that there should be a procedure for handling petitions which considers whether each merits a debate in Parliament.’

Brown is believed to favour a threshold for the number of signatories above which a debate will be mandatory.

The issue will be further considered by MPs as part of the debate on modernising Parliament.