Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the removal of funding for the UK Youth Parliament on young people's engagement in politics; and what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to provide an alternative platform for young people to engage with political matters.

The Government is committed to ensuring that young people have meaningful opportunities to participate in democratic processes, engage with political matters and influence decisions that affect their lives.

As part of our review of the UK Youth Parliament in 2025, we considered how best to ensure that young people continue to have meaningful opportunities to influence decisions that affect their lives. Over the summer, we engaged extensively with young people, including current and former Members of Youth Parliament, as well as organisations across the youth sector, to inform the future of youth voice and participation. This work is helping to shape delivery of our commitments in Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, including the commitment to strengthen young people’s involvement in decision-making at local, regional and national levels.

The independent 2025 evaluation of the UKYP demonstrated clear benefits for participants while identifying opportunities to broaden participation and strengthen young people’s role in decision-making. We are using this evidence, alongside our engagement with young people and the sector, to inform our approach to youth participation and democratic engagement.

The Department is providing £453,000 to the National Youth Agency to support delivery of the UK Youth Parliament in 2026/27. No decisions have been made about funding arrangements beyond March 2027.

As part of our work to deliver Youth Matters: Your National Youth Strategy, we are taking action to strengthen young people’s participation in decision-making at local, regional and national levels. This includes lowering the voting age to 16 for all elections ahead of the next UK Parliamentary General Election, strengthening civic and political education, and ensuring young people have the information and support they need to participate fully in democracy.

We are also creating new opportunities for young people to shape policy and decisions that affect them. This includes establishing a new Youth Policy Network to enable a diverse range of young people to engage with government decision-making and supporting youth-led social action through the #iwill movement.

We continue to work closely with colleagues across government, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on legislation who are leading on legislation to lower the voting age to 16, and the Department for Education on strengthening citizenship education.

We will continue to work with young people and colleagues across government to ensure that future approaches to youth participation and democratic engagement are informed by young people’s experiences, views and priorities.