The UK Youth Parliament is at risk of being axed within months, BBC News has learned, as the government is not committing to funding it any longer.
The parliament was launched in 2000 to boost interest in politics among young people and has more than 300 elected members aged between 11 and 18.
Once a year, the young politicians are allowed to hold debates in the House of Commons chamber, on a day when MPs are not sitting.
Some MPs and young people say axing it would be a blow for youth democracy, while others say it is not providing value for money.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), which funds the parliament each year with taxpayer cash, is not committing to giving any more grants to it.
A spokesperson for the DCMS praised the youth parliament’s “important legacy… giving elected young people a national platform to represent their peers, engage with decision-makers and develop confidence, leadership and skills for life and work”.
It received £453,000 in taxpayer funding in the last year alone with about £2.4m public money spent on it among other youth initiatives between 2017 and 2024.
While no final decision has been made on funding beyond March 2027, a government source said: “The government has not committed to continuing the programme in its current form.”
UK Youth Parliament insiders told the BBC that without government funding, it is likely to close.
It follows a government review, external published in October last year, which concluded that while the parliament was delivering on its intended goals, only a quarter of young people know about it – and some schools felt “excluded from the process”.
The government says it is working with young people and youth organisations to design a new scheme that increases their involvement in democracy and decision-making, with further announcements to be made this autumn.
Any new scheme will have a “particular focus on under-represented groups”, a government source said.
Bobby Forbes, the recently departed chair of the UK Youth Parliament’s Youth Select Committee, which works with officials in Westminster, said it gives teenagers “a direct way to scrutinise government and hold decision-makers to account”.
