Representation of the People Bill — Written evidence submitted by Alistair Ross, Senior Professor, et al (RPB46)

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

Young people’s opinions and reactions to Votes at 16
Introduction
We are a group of academics with long-standing interests in young people’s politics in the UK. We are
surveying a representative group of young people, starting this in October 2025, and now in the
concluding stages of collecting data in England and Wales. This interim report, prepared for your
Committee, presents a partial analysis of young people’s (aged 14-15) views of the extension of the
franchise, based on the views of 551 young people from 91 schools, 94% of our projected sample.
Professor Alistair Ross, London Metropolitan University: lead for qualitative analysis
Dr Tom Loughran, Lancaster University: lead for quantitative analysis
Dr Julius Elster, London Metropolitan University
Dr Andrew Mycock, Chief Policy Fellow, Yorkshire & Humber Policy Engagement & Research
Network
Associate Professor Christoper Pich, University of Nottingham
Dr Sarah Whitehouse, University of the West of England
Pen Williams, University of Bristol

Method
We have used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. Between October 2025 and March
2026 we have conducted small group deliberative discussions with over 550 Year 10 students (14-15
years old) across all the English Regions and Wales, each lasting around 75 minutes, where they were
encouraged to explore their attitudes towards becoming voters within the next 18 months. (Sample
details are given in the Appendix.) They discuss their expectations and apprehensions about this, and
what kind of preparations they feel they need to make, and what sources they might turn to,
particularly from schools. In the process of this, they complete a questionnaire that:
o explores their knowledge of voter registration and the voting process;
o their intentions to vote or not;
o their attitudes towards the major parties;
o the issues they consider important in deciding for whom to vote;
o their sources of information about politics; and
o with whom they discuss politics.
Responses of students
In the autumn of 2025, about half of the young people appeared to be unaware that the voting age
might be changed to the age of 16: by February 2026, nearly all were aware of he proposal. The initial
responses to the prospect of becoming voters within 9 to 21 months’ time was, for about a half of
them, a degree of apprehension. After further discussion, it was clear that the reluctance to vote
stemmed from feeling unprepared for what they saw as the responsibility. Many said that they didn’t
know enough about the political parties, and what each of them believed and stood for.
Likelihood of voting
They were asked in the questionnaire, which was completed half way though the discussion, how
likely they thought it was that they would vote in the next General Election, if the current proposed
law was enacted and they had reached the age of 16.

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

Table 1 shows the percentages of those indicating their likelihood on an eight point scale. Young
women show a greater inclination to vote than young men: 71% of young women are in the first three
categories, and only 60% of young men.
Table 1: %age of all, young men and young women and propensity to vote. N=551
all young men young women
Definitely 25 23 27
Probably 22 20 23
Likely 19 17 21
Not Likely 12 11 14
Probably Not 13 17 9
Definitely not 4 6 2
Don't know 5 6 4

There were also regional variations (Figure 1), although these are based on relatively small numbers
(Wales 36; South East 85; others between 47 and 67). The North West, Wales, London, the South
East and the South West appear more positive about voting; the Midlands, East of England, the
North East and Yorks and Humber more negative, apart from the North East, which lies between the
others.
Reasons for making this decision
The sample was asked to briefly describe their reasons for giving this indication of likelihood of voting.
These were then categorised, several responses falling into two or even there categories (average 1.5
reasons). Table 2 shows these reasons: the first three categories are general dispositions (to make
their voice heard, a sense of obligation or civic duty, more regarding the vote as a privilege or a right.
The fourth category can also be regarded as a positive – the aim to be achieved was usually to ensure
the success of a particular policy or party, but also sometimes specifically to contribute to the defeat
of a particular party or politician (invariably not specified). Overall, it must be noted that the great
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
NW
NE
YH
WM
EM
EE
SW
SE
LO
WA
Figure 1: Regional variations in likelihood of voting
Definite Probable Likely Unlikely Probably Not Definitley Not Don't Know

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

majority of young people are enthusiastic about having their voice heard, and contributing, through
voting, to the work of Parliament. Of particular interest is the sixth category (highlighted): the belief
that they lacked the knowledge about the various parties and their policies to be able to make a
decision. In subsequent discussion, this emerged as an even more widespread concern tha n these
figures suggest, and lay behind the widespread apprehension about voting referred to earlier.
Table 2: Reasons for offering how likely they were to vote, %
Reason Total Young men Young women
1 to make my voice heard 31 27 33
2 It's a duty/I can vote 12 13 11
3 It's a privilege /a right 7 5 8
4 To achieve a particular goal 7 7 7
5 I'm politically well informed 4 4 3
6 I don’t know enough about parties/politics 27 27 27
7 I'm not interested in politics 4 5 4
8 I'm not mature enough 4 5 3
9 The change to votes at 16 won't happen 3 2 3
10 I don't know/no answer 4 4 3
11 I am not sure why I selected this 2 3 1
12 voting won't make a difference 1 2 1
13 I have no intention to vote 2 2 1

‘Not knowing enough about politics and parties was almost invariable given in a positive way: they
would vote with confidence, if they had more information about parties and politics. The same gender
distribution can be seen as in Table 1: young women generally giving more positive reasons to vote
than young men.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
NW
NE
YH
WM
EM
EE
SW
SE
LO
WA
Fig 2: Regional variation in reasons for deciding whether to vote
to make my voice heard It's a duty/I can vote
It's a privilege /a right To achieve a particular goal
I'm politically well informed I don’t know enough about parties/politics
I'm not interested in politics I'm not mature enough
The change to votes at 16 won't happen I don't know/no answer
I am not sure why I selected this voting won't make a difference
I have no intention to vote

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

Figure 2 shows regional variationsthe North East students appear to be most confident about their
knowledge about politics.
Attitude to parties and intentions towards voting for specific parties
The sample were asked about their attitude to each of the major parties that stood in the 2024 General
Election, indicating if they would definitely vote for or against each of them, and their degree of
support or otherwise for each, on a ten- point scale. Table 3 gathers this ten point scale into five
groups, and shows where individuals indicated that they had not heard of the party.
Table 3 Party Voting Preferences, %

Conser-
vative Green Labour
Liberal
Dem Reform
Plaid
Cymru
high likelihood voting for (9, 10) 1 12 8 4 4 14
moderate likelihood voting for (7, 8) 10 17 17 11 7 0
Undecided (5, 6) 43 32 41 37 23 11
moderate low likelihood voting for(3, 4) 20 12 17 14 11 20
very low likelihood of voting for(1, 2) 18 9 12 9 47 17

haven't heard of the party 9 18 5 24 8 39
N=535 (17 did not complete this question) N = 16 (Wales, for Plaid Cymry)
This in some measure confirms that these young people are confused about the political parties: only
6% say that have a high likelihood of voting for a major party, and only 12% are committing themselves
to not vote for the four parties of the Conservative, the Green Party, Labour and the Liberal
Democrats. 35% are very undecided. However, in one respect, they do display a particular preference:
47% decare themselves as very unlikely to vote for the Reform Party – breaking down that figure 40%
gave a rating of 1 (would definitely not vote Reform, and 7% a rating of 2 (very unlikely). This in some
sense belies their assertion that they cannot distinguish between the various parties and their policies.

0
10
20
30
40
50
highly likely for (9,
10)
moderate likely for
(7, 8)
Undecided (5, 6) moderate low
likely against (3, 4)
highly likely against
(1, 2)
Fig 3: Likelihood of voting for each Party, %
Reform Liberal Democrat Labour Green Conservative

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

There is slight variation in this pattern between young men and young women, as can be seen in
Figures 4a and b, below.

Significant issues in deciding how to vote
Students were asked in questionnaire to indicate which issues they might consider important in
deciding how to select a Party. They were not asked to select from a list, or given prompts. Up to three
could be indicated: a small number gave a fourth. They were not ranked in terms o f importance or
significance. We also asked what actions they wanted to be taken with each issue mentioned. The
responses suggest that current issues are followed as they are reported and discussed by the general
population and media: for example, in March 2026 there were a few references to defence spending
(the USA/Israeli action against Iran) ; there were some references to Palestine and Gaza in October
2025. 56% suggested three or more issues, 28% two issues, and 9% a single issue. 7% were unable
to suggest a single issue. This suggests that a large proportion of the young people surveyed were able
to identify matters of topical political concern.
Table 4: numbers of young people raising issues of concern, by gender and %

Issue
total
number
young
women
young
men
combined %
of total
Poverty-related: housing, benefits, 216 102 114 39%
Cost of Living 162 73 89 29
Environment, Global warming 158 74 84 29
Crime 155 82 73 28
Immigration (refugees) 144 75 69 27
Equalities (ethnicity, sexuality, etc) 138 64 74 25
Education & youth related 106 58 48 19
International affairs, war 83 43 40 15
NHS 70 39 31 13

There were differences between genders, not only in number s, but in attitudes towards issues. For
example, slightly more young men raised Immigration than young women, and almost always referred
to refugee numbers , most vastly over -estimating the proportion of immigrants who were migrants.
0
10
20
30
40
50
Con Green Lab LDem Reform
Fig 4b: Young women: likelihood of voting
0
10
20
30
40
50
Con Green Labour Lib Dem Reform
Fig 4a: Young men: likelihood of voting
high likely for moderate likely for
undecided moderate likely against
high likley against
The Plaid Cymru voting intentions ha ve not
been shown, as they form a small proportion
of the Welsh votes.

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

Most expressed attitudes towards migrants, and these were markedly different, as they were towards
crime: the young women were significantly more supportive of migrants, and also attitudes towards
crime: these are shown in Figure 5a and b, showing the percentages of attituded for those identifying
these as issues.

Talking about politics
We asked the students to estimate how much they talked about politics, with their parents, their
friends and their teachers , to try and get an indication of the relative importance of each of these
groups. Figure 6 shows this, as a percentage, for all young people.
This shows that very few young people
feel that they engage in political
conversations with teachers . From our
conversations with some teachers, it
appears that many of them either feel
that this is forbidden in some way, or
perceived as inappropriate. The
Department of Education have
produced Guidance on Political
impartiality in schools (updated March
2025) that indicate that this is not the
case, giving detailed examples of how to
engage with KS 3 and 4 student s, and
encouraging such discussion with
students in ways that do not take
partisan approaches or seek to
inappropriately persuade students into
partisan views.
Parents are shown as a particularly likely group with whom conversations are held: over a third of
these Year 10 students say they talk quite a bit or a lot with their parents, although more that 10% say
they never do this. The ‘never’ group include many of those that they say that they are not interested
in politics, or that do not intend to vote. This is also seen when one examines the gendered responses
to this question (Figures 6a and 6b). Young men are less inclined to talk with any group about political
issues than are young women: but two thir ds of all young people report that they never, or do not
often, talk about politics with their teachers.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
positive towards migrants
neutral
negative towards migrants
Fig 5a: attitudes towards refugees
0 10 20 30
more police
harsher
punishments
Fig 5b: attitudes towards
crime
Females Males
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
a lot quite a bit sometimes not often never
Fig 6: 'how much do you talk about politics with?'
Parents Friends Teachers

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

The role of the school
While there is some enthusiasm about the prospect of voting at 16, over a quarter o f these young
people – all of whom will reach this age within 17 months - reported in the questionnaire that they
felt that they lacked sufficient knowledge about parties and politics in general to make a decision
about for whom they should vote. In subsequent discussion, this figure appeared much higher tha n
this: we have yet to analyse the transcripts of these discussions , but would estimate that a t least 50
to 60% felt that they needed more information about the differences between the political parties
beliefs and programmes. Most of them also suggested that schools and teachers were best placed to
provide such information. A substantial majority professed suspicion about the accuracy of the
information they saw in social media. Many made little use of more traditional media, and those that
did were frequently suspicious of print media such as newspapers, which were largely seen as
partisan; broadcast media was seen as more likely to present a more balanced set of views.
The deliberative discussions that we held were deliberately presented as unstructured: questions
were made in a very open- ended way, described to them as not having ‘right’ answers, and inviting
them to present their own thoughts, but to also voice disagreements with others. They were not
required to come to conclusions, and there was often dial ogue on the differences between debate
and discussion: they recognised that they did not need to come to a group conclusion, but exchange
views – and perhaps modify views as the discussion progressed. Towards the end of one session, a
young man in the South East accurately summarised our methodology:
I liked the way that you didn’t have a list of questions, or anything else, on the table. You did
have your questions, but they were all up here [tapp ing his head]. But you only asked them
when we said something that allowed you to ask it. It’s really good to be listened to …
They liked being listened to, and they liked listening to each other: this was often described as a novel
experience. There was general agreement that most of their teachers would be able to discuss political
parties and issues with them in a neutral way, and not try to persua de them, or guide them t owards
particular conclusions. Many groups discussed the teachers of subjects who could do this well: English
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
a lot quite a bit sometimes not often never
Fig 6b: young men talking politics
with ...
Parents Friends Teachers
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
a lot quite a bit sometimes not often never
Fig 6a: young women talking politics
with ...
Parents Friends Teachers

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

teachers, history teachers ( ‘if they could get away from the past ’). Sometimes citizenship teachers
were mentioned, and religious education teachers were suggested on several occasions, a s being
particularly able to present a wide range of beliefs, philo sophies and practices , without bias. They
said that the wanted ‘the facts’, but also wanted to discuss these in relation of current issues, and in
the context of more fundamental approaches to society, not simply to current policies and manifestos.
The general preference was for small group discussions – suggestions varied from six to maybe half a
class – to be held regularly – between fortnightly and monthly, wi th a mixture of presentations and
discussion. (There are ways in which this can be managed within the context of whole class teaching.)
Other suggestions were for mock elections, held maybe every year, for the whole school. A substantial
minority of schools already di d this (perhaps a quarter), but in many cases this was only in election
years. Classes or year groups could form constituencies, it was suggested, which would support
understanding of the first past the post system.
Conclusions
The great majori ty of the se young people feel that they should be contributing to the democratic
processes of the country through participating in the election. Many display some apprehensions
about this, fully aware of the responsibilities that come with this. Their principal concern lies in their
lack of knowledge about the political parties and their policies towards a range of issues. They want
the opportunity to learn about these, and many say that, given the current lack of school activity in
this area, they will have to ‘do research’ on this, but are also aware of the lack of reliable resources
for them to be able to do this.
Schools, they feel, should provide places where than can receive the reliable and dispassio nate
information that they need, and provide the location and leadership to have regular small group
discussions about political parties and issues.
There is some urgency about providing such structures through schools. The revisions to the National
Curriculum need to address these issues: but their suggestions will not come into effect till the start
of the 2028-9 school year. Given that the next General Election will be held, at the latest, part way
through that year, interim measures need to be in place before this to support schools and teachers
in addressing political education for all students. This should probably be provided for all classes from
Year 9 (13-14 year-olds) to Year 13, including 6
th form Colleges and Further Education provision, and
should start, at the very latest, by the Autumn of 2027.
The final word …
… from a group of students in a school in the Yorkshire and Humberside Region, in late March 2026
[1, male] it's only a bad idea if it's executed poorly. So if they don't change the curriculum into
teaching young kids about politics and letting them come to their own thing, if we had a
class once a week where they just laid out the history of all the parties and what they want
to do and then you let the people come to their own conclusions, then I think it's fine. But
because that's not the thing, then we shouldn't do it …. If it's going to happen, then it's
going to need to - You have to be able to teach about it, because I don't know anything
about it, if I'm being very honest. I've got like a very loose understanding, so...
[2, female] I completely agree with [1]. I feel like kids are just - too poorly educated to know and make
decisions on who should run our country and make such important decisions like this ..
but also kids should be heard and involved in the government.

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Evidence to the House of Commons Committee considering the Representation of the People Bill

[3, male] I do agree with [1] a nd [2] - I think some kind of education system about politics [is
needed] because currently you can definitely see - especially online - there's a lot of these
bubbles forming, of really radicalized groups, and I think when they reach voting age that's
going to really impact. Because if you're really deep into something like that then you're
just going to like vote like - I don't know. Someone could be awful, but obviously, if you've
been radicalised to think that's the right option, then that's what they're going to choose.
So I just think if there was a sort of gateway - just like “oh, here's what they do, here's
this” - and then just let people decide on their own what they believe instead of - because
if you don’t, it just leads to people forming rumours and bad opinions that just get echoed.
April 6, 2026

AppendixMethodology
Between 8 and 12 schools were selected in each Region in England and Wales. Schools were selected in a range
of different constituencies, such that the sum of the votes cast in the 2024 General Election for each of the major
parties ± 1% in England, and no more that ± 2.5% in each Region. Schools selected from the constituencies in
each region were selected to include an appropriate range of students in terms of ethnic identities and poverty
(FSM) using data from the DoE and Welsh Government annual census on Schools.
Schools were asked to select 6 students from Year 10, preferably from a single class/registration group (this was
easier for schools to manage, and from the research perspective led to groups that already knew each other,
making conversation easier from the outset). Schools were also asked to select students who could represent,
as far as possible with in the size set for the group , an appropriate balance for gender (in mixed -sex schools),
academic ability, ethnicity and FSM provision. We also asked that we did not get members of the School Council;
and that we had a proportionate number of any students taking the GCSE Citizenship examination. (This is not
widely taken, and in all schools save one we had no such students: one school in the North West had a policy of
all students taking this examination, and this group thus were all taking the course).
Written consent was obtained from all students and all parents. All quoted students will be given pseudonyms,
and referred to only by gender and Region. Schools were asked not to prepare students for the discussion,
which was referred to as being concerned with Young People and their Democratic Futures (not ‘Votes at 16).
It was emphasised that we were not assessing schools or individuals.
We are grateful to all schools and young people involved for their cooperation, and to the Electoral Commission
that provided letters asking schools to assist us in the investigation.
Our study has to date included 91 schools in England and Wales: we envisage 4 or 5 more schools being added
in the early summer. We also hope to add similar studies in Scotland and Norther Ireland in the summer of 2026.