More Metrics Ltd has modelled publicly available parliamentary petition data (as submitted to the UK Government and Parliament petitions website) to provide small area estimates of attitudes to COVID-19 expressed through specific parliamentary petition themes and topics relating to the pandemic. The modelled data has been supplied to CDRC at LSOA (2021 England/Wales, 2011 Scotland DZ/N.I. SOA) level, allowing for fine-grained understanding of the attitudes of people to COVID-19 issues.

The available data includes 65 petition topics with a total of over 9 million signatures grouped into 21 themes (using a combination of clustering and topic narrative). Population signature rates for each theme are disaggregated to LSOA level for all parts of the UK. These provide estimates of the likelihood of a resident (aged 16 and over) living in each LSOA signing petitions for each theme. Additional datasets provide insight into the characteristics of individuals most likely to sign petitions based on a combination of their health status, broad age band and household composition.

The themes, clustered from the relevant petitions, are: Keep Schools Closed, Support Key Workers, Prohibit employers testing staff, Open up football, Better Maternity leave, Support Zoos and animal boarding, Vaccine Choice, Open up Gyms, Lockdown the UK, Support housing and low paid, Close Univesities and support students, Review Exam Grade process, Support Self Employed, Support the Arts, Support Directors, Public inquiry into Government, Long Covid Research, Prioritise Vaccines, Repeal the Coronavirus Act, Open Up Golf, and Public Inquiry into Vaccine and Other impacts.