UK Youth Parliament

The UK Youth Parliament was established in 1999. It is independent of the UK Parliament, although it does have an annual meeting in the House of Commons Chamber and parliamentary staff have supported Members of Youth Parliament (MYPs) in their committee work in the past.

Since May 2024, the UK Youth Parliament has been run by the National Youth Agency (NYA). The NYA receives a grant from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to fund the Youth Parliament. The NYA Agency is a charity that works in partnership with a wide range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations to support and improve services for young people (as described in the Charity Commission entry for The National Youth Agency).

The way the UK Youth Parliament operates is determined by a steering group of MYPs. The steering group is responsible for preparing the UK Youth Parliament Rulebook (PDF).

Annual meeting in the House of Commons Chamber

Since 2009, the UK Youth Parliament has held an annual debate in the House of Commons Chamber (except during the covid pandemic).

Since 2009, MPs in each Parliament have agreed to allow the Youth Parliament to meet in the Chamber. Initially, there was some debate over whether it was appropriate to allow non-MPs to use the Chamber; and the first two debates in 2009 and 2010 resulted in divisions before the House agreed to allow the Youth Parliament to use the Chamber.

Meetings of the UK Youth Parliament

The first meeting of the UK Youth Parliament in the Chamber was held on Friday 30 October 2009. This was the first time that anyone other than MPs had been able to meet in the Chamber.

The Youth Parliament will meet twice in 2025 in the House of Commons Chamber. The first meeting will take place on 28 February 2025.

Previous meetings have taken place as follows – transcripts and video recordings are linked to where available):

• UK Youth Parliament 2009 (transcript) – 30 October 2009
• UK Youth Parliament 2010 – 29 October 2010
• UK Youth Parliament 2011 – 4 November 2011
• UK Youth Parliament 2012 – 23 November 2012
• UK Youth Parliament 2013 – 15 November 2013
• UK Youth Parliament 2014: some speeches – 14 November 2014
• UK Youth Parliament 2015 – 13 November 2015
• UK Youth Parliament 2016 – 11 November 2016
• UK Youth Parliament 2017 – 10 November 2017
• UK Youth Parliament 2018: morning session and afternoon session – 9 November 2018
• UK Youth Parliament 2019 – 8 November 2019
• UK Youth Parliament 2022: morning session; and afternoon session – 4 November 2022
• UK Youth Parliament 2023 – 17 November 2023

Records of decisions to allow the Youth Parliament to meet in the House of Commons Chamber

In March 2009, the House of Commons agreed to allow members of the UK Youth Parliament to meet in the House of Commons Chamber. Following a debate which began on 12 March 2009 and concluded on 16 March, the House agreed on a division, by 210 votes to 22, to allow the 2009 meeting of the Youth Parliament to take place in the Chamber [HC Deb 12 March 2009, cc528-541; cc542-550; and 16 March 2009 cc699-743]

The House has subsequently agreed to further meetings of the UK Youth Parliament taking place in the Chamber.

• 20 July 2010 – once a year for the duration of the Parliament – HC Deb 20 July 2010 cc290-319; 21 July 2010 cc534-536 499-21 (deferred division)
• 23 June 2015 – once a year for the duration of the Parliament – HC Deb 23 June 2015 cc838-854 (no division)
• 17 July 2017 – once a year for the duration of the Parliament – HC Deb 17 July 2017 c660 (no debate or division)
• 21 Jul 2022 – once a year for the duration of the Parliament – HC Deb 21 July 2022 c1216 (no debate or division). As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the Youth Parliament had not met in the House of Commons earlier in this Parliament
• 13 Nov 2024 – twice in 2025 and then once a year for the remainder of this Parliament – HC Deb 13 November 2024 c870 (no debate or division)

Funding the UK Youth Parliament

The British Youth Council (BYC) ran the UK Youth Parliament until its closure in March 2024.

In April 2024, following the closure of the BYC, the government said it had provided “a total amount of c.£2.4m” to the BYC to deliver youth voice activities including the UK Youth Parliament, Youth Select Committees and Make Your Mark.

On 21 May 2024, in a written statement, the government announced it had appointed the National Youth Agency (NYA) 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.

In announcing that it had appointed the NYA to run the UK Youth Parliament in the 2024/25 financial year, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said that it would “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 November 2024, the government said that funding for the UK Youth Parliament after March 2026 “cannot be confirmed at this stage” whilst it was working towards the next spending review.

In an April 2024 written answer, the government reported on an evaluation of the impact of the Youth Parliament which was conducted between October 2022 and March 2023. The Youth Engagement Impact Study, led by Ecorys UK and Participation People, found that all stakeholders, participants, delivery staff and policy officials, agreed that the programmes were important vehicles to engage young people in the UK political processes and support youth-informed policy development.