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, each Parliament has 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.

In 2015, there was a debate but no division and in 2017 and 2022 (following the pandemic early in the 2019 Parliament), motions to allow the Youth Parliament to meet in the Chamber were agreed without debate or division.

The Leader of the House of Commons has tabled a motion to allow the UK Youth Parliament to meet in the Chamber twice in 2025 and then once a year for the remainder of this Parliament.

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. This was the first time that anyone other than MPs had been able to meet in the Chamber. Following a debate which began on 12 March 2009 and concluded on 16 March, the House agreed on a division 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 first meeting of the UK Youth Parliament in the Chamber was held on Friday 30 October 2009.

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

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 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.

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