UK Youth Parliament: British Youth Council Closure

Tuesday 21st May 2024 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stuart Andrew)]

The UK Youth Parliament was formed in 1999 and is made up of 300 Members of Youth Parliament aged 11 to 18, who represent thousands of young people from their communities across the UK. MYPs are elected to represent the views of their young constituents both to the Government and to national and local decision makers. They meet regularly to hold debates and plan campaigns at a local, regional and national level, which includes an annual debate in the House of Commons.

The British Youth Council, which had delivered the UK Youth Parliament since 2011, announced its closure on 21 March 2024. Since then, we have been doing all we can to ensure that the UKYP can continue with minimum disruption. In the immediate weeks following the announcement, I met with key regional delivery organisations, Members of Youth Parliament, interested MPs, youth organisations and other relevant parties.

Today, less than two months after the closure of the BYC and following extensive assessment of providers’ capability and capacity, the Government are announcing they have appointed the National Youth Agency to deliver the UKYP programme for the remainder of the financial year 2024-25, in partnership with a range of organisations based across the United Kingdom.

My Department will now begin a formal review of the UKYP to help inform the longer term future of the programme, and will work closely with young people throughout this process. In addition, my Department is exploring its role in supporting the delivery of other youth voice activities which were previously facilitated by the BYC. We remain open to proposals from organisations or sector bodies on how these might be delivered by others in the future.

I hope that Members of Youth Parliament will feel encouraged by this news and will continue to be involved in the UKYP.

[HCWS487]