Voting age

The voting age for an election in the UK depends on whether responsibility for making the rules is reserved to the UK parliament or has been devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament).

In reserved elections, the voting age is 18. These are:

• elections for the UK Parliament
• all local elections in England
• police and crime commissioner elections (PCC) in England and Wales
• all elections in Northern Ireland

In devolved elections, the voting age is 16:

• local council elections in Scotland and Wales
• elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd

The UK Government was elected with a manifesto commitment to lower the voting age for reserved elections to 16. The commitment was not included in the first King’s Speech of the new Parliament, but the government says it still plans to legislate before the next general election.

Most other parties in the House of Commons support lowering the voting age. The Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party are opposed. Reform UK did not mention voting age in its manifesto, instead pledging to reform the voting system for Westminster elections.

Supporters of reducing the voting age say that it would help increase political engagement of younger people and that 16- and 17-year-olds already have significant right, so it is important that they have a say in who governs them. Opponents question young people’s maturity and life experience. Some worry about the impact on elections and there are suggestions that it is a partisan move as younger people tend to vote for left of centre parties compared to older people.

In the few countries where voting age has been lowered to 16 research has shown that there has been no impact on the results of elections and that young people enfranchised at 16 are more likely to vote than those enfranchised at 18.