SYP has been campaigning for Votes at 16 since we were established in 1999, and it became our 2012 priority campaign in the run up to Scotland’s 2014 Independence Referendum. As a result of young people’s campaigning efforts, ten years ago, on 18th June 2015, the Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2015 was passed unanimously by Members of the Scottish Parliament. This legislation allows 16 and 17 year olds to vote in Scottish Parliament and local elections. Ten years on, Shetland Islands MSYP Bertie Summers reflects on what Votes at 16 means for young people today.
Today is exactly ten years since 16 and 17-year-olds were granted the right to vote in all elections and referendums being held in Scotland. It was on the 18th of June 2015 that the legislation to extend voting to under-18s in Scotland was passed by the Scottish Parliament.
This wonderful expansion of democratic participation in our political systems has been put into practice many times throughout the past decade. 16 and 17-year-olds were allowed to vote in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections, 2017 Scottish local government elections, 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, and 2022 Scottish local government elections.
Voting is extremely important to myself and the young people I represent because we are citizens of our communities.
Voting is extremely important to myself and the young people I represent because we are citizens of our communities, just as much as the over-18-year-olds are. According to the law, under-18s are already permitted to leave school and be outside of education altogether. They can get married, have intercourse, become parents, join the British armed forces, and obtain a driver’s license at the age of 17.
As well as this, 16 and 17-year-olds can work in the public, private, and third sector. They can work for almost as many hours as adults. 16 and 17-year-olds will also have some of their wages taken away from them in taxes if their monthly and yearly earnings are above a certain level. Again, this is just like the adult population.
That’s why younger citizens should be able to vote. Nowhere in this world can truly call itself a fully functioning democracy if there ever was such a thing as ‘taxation without representation’. If members of the public are old enough to work and pay tax, then they are also old enough to vote on how they do both of these things.
Sadly, I have not been able to vote yet. I turned 18 in December 2024, so was too young to vote in the last local or Scottish elections. I was 17 at the 2024 UK General Election, but unfortunately, 16 and 17-year-olds have still not been given the right to vote in any UK-wide elections or referendums.
However, the Scottish Youth Parliament has led the determined campaigns to secure the expansion of voting rights for teenagers in all elections and referendums. Just last year, Marcus Flucker MSYP and Ellie Craig MSYP attended a summit on ‘Votes at 16’ in Northern Ireland, which was aimed at bolstering support for this very powerful cause that unites all of us here at SYP.
Voting in elections and referendums feels like one of the biggest decisions that any one individual will ever make in their lifetime.
As I am not quite old enough to vote yet, I’m already being filled with an enormous sense of trepidation. Voting in elections and referendums feels like one of the biggest decisions that any one individual will ever make in their lifetime. It’s also a tremendous honour and a privilege to have the right to vote here, especially as the world is now becoming more and more uncertain. We must continue to have that power to choose who governs us for the foreseeable future.
I think it’s really important that 16 and 17-year-olds are allowed to vote, and the legislation that was passed in 2015 should definitely be extended, to cover the entirety of the UK. Why? Well, the fact of the matter is that we live in a free society, and freedom means freedom for everybody. We don’t get to pick and choose, and we shouldn’t get to pick and choose when it comes to figuring out who gets to live freely and who doesn’t.
It must never be the case that those who are aged 18 and over get to live freely, but those who haven’t yet reached their 18th birthday don’t.
Freedom is never more than a generation away from becoming extinct. It falls on every single one of us to preserve, protect, and defend it, before passing it on to future generations. So that’s why I strongly believe that the ‘Votes at 16’ legislation has got to remain in place in Scotland for as long as we all live, alongside a swift introduction across the United Kingdom as well.
