Young people and politics

The Youth Select Committee has announced an inquiry into lowering the voting age to 16, which will explore the issues and arguments around votes at 16.

For further information, including how to respond to the inquiry’s call for evidence before the deadline of Friday 2 May, visit www.byc.org.uk/uk-work/youth-select-committee.aspx.

The British Youth Council has published The Kenny Report 2: Is Politics for Young People, a report exploring innovative ways to tackle the issues of voter apathy and low registration rates amongst young voters. The nine recommendations in the report are:

• The Government should lower the voting age from 18 to 16 for all public elections and referendums;
• Promote political education from an early age in our education system;
• Create a nationwide cross-party campaign targeted at young people to raise awareness to ensure young people are registered and vote;
• The Government should pass a law that provides people with the opportunity to register any time they have an encounter with state services;
• The Government should produce a more user-friendly registration form to enable more 16 and 17 years old to be registered;
• Schools should do more to ensure that young people understand the many benefits of registering on the electoral register as well as voting;
• The Electoral Commission should publish materials and broadcasts adverts that appeal to young people specifically, in order to persuade more young people to register and vote;
• Political parties should create manifestos that have been informed by young people for young people, which are accessible and easy to read; and
• The Government should appoint a minister for youth.

To download the full report visit http://kennyimafidon.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/The-Kenny-Report-2-Is-Politics-for-young-people1.pdf.