Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to encourage youth engagement in (a) national and (b) local elections.

The December 2017 Democratic Engagement Plan sets out our ambition to increase democratic participation across several under-registered groups, including young people. It includes a pledge to launch the inaugural National Democracy Week in July this year. The Week will see Cabinet Office and partners deliver events and activities to promote democratic engagement.

Further to this work, as part of the Government’s Suffrage Fund Centenary Programme, Cabinet Office, the Government Equalities Office and Department for Education are working together on projects aimed at improving young people's understanding and knowledge of both national and local democracy. As already announced, this includes recruiting and training youth democracy ambassadors. We have also already published a youth engagement toolkit for parliamentarians. Later this year we will launch a secondary schools resource.

In addition, the Government has taken steps, linked to the Higher Education and Research Act 2017, to facilitate student registration.