Funding limbo puts Youth Parliament's future on hold

The UK Youth Parliament’s future rests on a funding decision that has yet to be made, and the young people elected to sit in it are warning that the machinery of youth representation could stop working altogether. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has not committed to funding the parliament beyond March 2027. Insiders told the BBC that without government money the scheme will likely have to close.

The parliament was established in 1999 to boost interest in politics among young people. It currently has more than 300 elected members aged between 11 and 18, and received £453,000 in taxpayer support last year, alongside about £2.4m spent on other youth initiatives between 2017 and 2024. Members are elected every one to two years by voters aged 11 to 18 who live, work or go to school in their local area, with similar schemes running for the devolved Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments.

Three members from across the north-west of England have urged the government to reconsider. Poppy Williams, the 16-year-old elected member for Knowsley, said young people had already reached out to her for support and advice in the role. “Without UKYP, we are losing a role that young people trust, aspire to be and understand they have their support,” she warned. She said she had stood to show young people that, whatever accent they carry, the clothes they wear or the household they come from, their voices matter, adding that from a place like Knowsley, youth voice is a necessity and one of the few chances young people have to put their opinions out and create change from them.

Mohammed Dawud Islam, who represents Pendle and Burnley in Lancashire, also 16, described the parliament as a platform for the concerns of young people to be heard. He said losing it would mean losing the chance for young people to contribute to positive change towards the nation, noting that many young people want to get involved with politics and want to be heard, and that having representatives from across the country helps bring many different voices forward.

Ruth Tilaye, the member for Salford in Greater Manchester, aged 17, said she had joined to make a positive difference to her society and community. She explained that she had felt excluded and distant from the decisions and opinions forming her future as a young black woman, and wanted to be the change she would have valued as a young girl. She argued the parliament gives young people a platform of advocacy that is desperately needed, and pushed back on what she called a common misconception that members just sit in the Commons and debate, pointing to the many projects members run for their constituencies throughout the two years they are elected.

Meanwhile, the operational picture is not entirely straightforward. A government review published in October last year concluded that while the parliament was delivering on its intended goals, only a quarter of young people know about it, and some schools felt excluded from the process. That gap between what the scheme achieves and how widely it is understood forms part of the backdrop to the funding question.

No final decision has been made on funding beyond March 2027, but a government source said the government has not committed to continuing the programme in its current form. Officials say they are working with young people and youth organisations to design a new scheme intended to increase their involvement in democracy and decision-making, with further announcements due this autumn. For the members currently serving constituencies from Knowsley to Pendle and Burnley to Salford, the question is whether whatever comes next can deliver what the existing structure already does. The original reporting, which this article draws on, can be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51kdm7041xpo.