Written evidence submitted by the British
Youth Council
1. The British Youth Council (BYC), as the national
youth council of the UK, empowers young people aged 25 and under,
wherever they are from, to have a say and be heard. We aim to
help them to participate in decisions that affect them, have a
voice and campaign on issues they believe in, inspire them to
have a positive impact, and gain recognition for their positive
contribution to communities, society and the world.[35]
2. BYC supports the youth voice in decision making
and the democratic engagement of young people through its programmes
and services including support for the UK Youth Parliament—600
elected Members of Youth Parliament, the Young Mayor Network of
directly-elected young mayors, and the Local Youth Council Network
of over 450 youth councils in the UK.
3. BYC has a sixty year history of encouraging
young people to vote. For example, BYC ran a General Election
2010 campaign to encourage young people to engage with prospective
parliamentary candidates on their priority policy issues such
as public transport and ending child poverty, and in 2006 was
funded by the Electoral Commission to deliver a programme "Inform
& Influence" between 2006 and 2008 to raise political
awareness amongst over 1000 young people at risk of being not
in employment, education and training; 80% of those who attended
training stated that their involvement made them "more likely
to vote".
4. BYC would like the Political and Constitutional
Reform Committee to consider the specific challenges that young
people may face using the individual electoral registration process,
and welcome working with the Committee to consult young people
and their representatives further on this issue. We believe that
young people will have questions and concerns about the new requirement
to provide a date of birth and National Insurance number when
registering which need to be answered. We believe that young people
would benefit from a national co-ordinated public awareness campaign,
produced with young people for young people, to explain how to
register to vote under the new system, and the new focus on sharing
personal data and individual responsibility. Young people need
to be empowered to register to vote themselves; in order to have
control over this process they need to have sufficient accessible
and youth-friendly information. We think that providing clear
information about electoral registration process through the Citizenship
curriculum, partnered with voter registration drives at schools,
universities, and other places and services that young people
use, will be key to increasing the proportion of young people
who register to vote.
5. Shortly after the General Election 2010, BYC
ran an online consultation with 1149 young people across the UK
aged 10 to 25 years old on issues around political and electoral
reform; 49% of respondents being aged 18 to 25. As part of this
consultation BYC asked young people to submit their ideas on how
to increase the number of young people registering to vote and
using their vote. We received 892 ideas from young people (78%
of the total sample) to the question "What do you think needs
to be done to encourage young people to register to vote and exercise
their vote?" One of the key themes of these responses was
the need to remove barriers to the registration of young voters
and simplify the process. Young people highlighted the issue of
having to print off and post the registration form. They also
wanted information within the curriculum of how to vote, and the
process of undertaking this while you have a home address and
term time address at university. BYC would be happy to share more
of these suggestions with the Committee; a small selection of
the quotes from the young people involved is below:
— (a) "[Voter
registration] made simpler no forms just turn up and vote with
id". Female, 21, who didn't register to vote in time
for the General Election 2010.
— (b) "More
publicity of deadline by which you have to register to vote by
etc. More polling stations in town centres and increased flexibility
of which polling station you can use". Female, 18, who
voted in the General Election 2010.
— (c) "Make
it easier to register to vote. Currently you can fill out the
form online but still have to print it off and post it".
Female, 22, who voted in the General Election 2010.
— (d) "Simpler
explanations [of the voting process]? More hands on activities
like in town, instead of just reading leaflets?" Female,
14.
— (e) "As
many 18 year olds who need to register to vote are in education,
at a college or a sixth form, it could be possible to visit these
places to personally encourage them to register and to offer some
advice on how to, or even do it there and then!" Male,
18, who was too young to vote in the General Election 2010.
— (f) "Make
the system easier, add it to the curriculum and encourage schools
to set up an opportunity to register". Female, 17.
6. BYC has also previously outlined young people's
interest in being able to vote online or by email and would be
interested to discuss further the opportunities for the use of
new technologies in the voting process that could be coupled with
the implementation of individual electoral registration. When
BYC asked young people in 2008 "Do you think that more young
people would vote in elections if they were able to vote online,
by email or by post?" 83% of participants agreed that it
would.[36]
September 2011
35 For further information on the work of the British
Youth Council, and our membership, please visit http://www.byc.org.uk Back
36
British Youth Council, September 2008, Consultation response to
the Ministry of Justice, The Governance of Britain: Election Day-weekend
voting consultation. Available from: http://www.byc.org.uk/resource-centre/policy-briefings-and-consultation-responses.aspx Back
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