Votes at 16 must come with improved education about the democratic process

The government’s wide ranging strategy to modernise and strengthen our democracy – ahead of new legislation later this year – is welcome. Its new policy paper delivers on key manifesto commitments and sets out reforms to the electoral system, including lowering the voting age to 16 . However, Restoring Trust in Our Democracy also lacks any serious consideration of the education infrastructure needed to support greater participation – a critical omission if the government is serious about its wider ambition to ‘break the class ceiling’.  

Engagement with stakeholders has revealed the knotty issues 

The strategy document reflects engagement with a wide range of stakeholders – devolved authorities, local government, the Electoral Commission, other government departments and electoral experts. By doing so it has revealed many of the knotty, sometimes very technical, barriers that make our electoral system unnecessarily clunky. It also acknowledges the impacts on underrepresented groups such as support for looked after children and information protection for victims of domestic abuse. 

Some of the proposed reforms are aimed at smoothing the electoral process and include expanding the options for eligible voter ID, introducing automatic voter registration and making it easier for Electoral Registration Officers to use locally held data. Other reforms are designed to streamline systems across the UK – including changing the deadline for registering for a postal vote and removing the requirement for additional evidence to register in Northern Ireland. The strategy also makes proposals for strengthening rules around political donations. This shows a detailed understanding of where reform is needed and overdue, but it will all require serious scrutiny.

As the government fleshes out its proposals it should ensure a greater role for the public in constitutional policy making, something called for by the IfG. This would help to achieve a public mandate for change, but also inform proposals by drawing out often overlooked insights – such as the lived experiences of people that face barriers to democratic participation.

Votes at 16 rests on the argument that it will improve participation and engagement

Votes at 16 was a key constitutional reform in Labour’s 2024 manifesto, aimed at engaging more young people in our democracy. 

However, the government will not be able to avoid scrutiny that expanding the electorate is a tool to broaden Labour’s electoral base. One problem is that the public debate over votes at 16 is often reduced to unhelpful comparisons with age requirements for driving, buying alcohol and joining the armed forces – these thresholds vary for different reasons and rarely reflect a coherent logic about maturity or responsibility. More problematic still are arguments of competency. Tying voting rights to an individual’s knowledge or perceived ‘readiness’ is neither practical nor democratic.

Extending the vote to 16 year olds for UK parliament and Northern Ireland assembly elections will bring the voting age in line with elections for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. While this would mean voting age is harmonised for parliamentary elections across the UK – although not likely to be in place before the 2027 Northern Ireland assembly election – this is not in itself a strong argument for change either. 

The government insists that the change will improve young people’s political participation and engagement. This is important, given young people are the least satisfied with democracy ²² https://www.bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk/publications/youth-and-satisfaction-democracy/, https://www.ippad.eu/post/youth-survey-uk , and are least likely to turnout to vote. ²³ https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/uk-opinion-polls/how-britain-voted-in-the-2024-election  But changing legislation alone is not enough to achieve this aim. The government must invest in wider civic infrastructure to realise any potential societal benefits from lowering the voting age – but in an otherwise detail heavy paper, there is a lack of specificity about how it intends to do this.

The government has to address the patchwork provision of citizenship education 

Citizenship education – which incorporates democratic education – is a statutory subject in secondary schools, but in practice it is often sidelined: a fifth of schools provide no citizenship education at all and the subject is not compulsory in academies. ²⁴ https://drive.google.com/file/d/121L4ut1aywmZpd2hbAzVRI6xlTQxdCgB/view  There is no consistent, coherent and guaranteed offer in 16–19 settings either. ²⁵ https://www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaigns-parliament/news-views/aoc-blogs/curriculum-and-assessment-review-the-case-for-a-16-18-curriculum-guarantee  This ‘patchwork’ provision results in many young people leaving education without the political literacy or the confidence to cast their first vote. ²⁶ https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/news-and-views/our-responses-consultations/curriculum-and-assessment-review

The inconsistent nature of provision disproportionately affects young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage – schools with higher levels of student deprivation are less likely to teach citizenship education, and young people experiencing socio-economic disadvantage are less likely to vote than their counterparts. ²⁷ https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1057/s41293-021-00186-4?sharing_token=UQFDpV4a9tCEK8rvPTvNgFxOt48VBPO10Uv7D6sAgHul_IQu6S6iz-XxGGh0Eiwh_NEsTxEE-Lmva…  For a government that has championed ‘breaking the class ceiling’ as part of its opportunity mission, tackling the unequal delivery of democratic education is an important step.

The government notes that ‘practical steps will be taken to help the education sector to support the implementation of votes at 16’, but it has delayed explaining how until the publication of the independent curriculum and assessment review later this year.

However, there have been numerous reports and reviews in this space over the last decade, and the demands from the democratic education sector are clear: establish a minimum entitlement to democratic education across all age groups – from primary to post-16; ensure educators and teachers are supported to deliver democratic education; ensure that educational settings are held accountable for delivering this as part of the curriculum. ²⁸ https://docsend.com/view/9nnhamtp8c9re77q  What the sector needs is action – not further reflection.

Young people’s first experience of voting set habits for a lifetime. If the government is serious about restoring trust and supporting all eligible citizens to vote, then it must inspire and excite a new generation of voters by improving the offer of democratic education.