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Business of the House

I am sure that my right hon. Friend is aware of early-day motion 801, which calls for the vote at 16 and has the support of 91 Members across the parties in the House. [That this House believes that the time is right to lower the voting age to 16; recognises that at 16 and 17 young people’s lives are as rich and varied as at any other age, that they have considerable responsibilities that routinely involve making complex decisions and that are unrecognised in their current democratic rights, that many youth-led organisations have been campaigning for the voting age to be reduced, and that lowering the voting age could play a huge role in helping young people feel moreconnected with political processes which would strengthen local and national democracy and is the next logical extension for citizenship education; and calls on the Government to use the Electoral Administration Bill to legislate to lower the voting age to 16 for all public elections in the UK.] As a constitutional moderniser, does my right hon. Friend agree that, given that we have citizenship classes up to the age of 16 in all our schools, it is a great pity that young people will have to wait until they are 18 to exercise the right to vote?