I support the principle behind Amendment 32 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, just as I previously supported the principle when the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, introduced a Private Member’s Bill in 2020 and when the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, introduced an amendment to what became the Elections Act 2022. The ban on Peers voting in general elections belongs to bygone times when the House was entirely hereditary and had an absolute veto over legislation, and when Members of this House were often Prime Minister. We no longer have an absolute veto on legislation; we have no say at all over financial measures, including the Budget; and we have no say on who is the Prime Minister, because that is determined solely by MPs.
The amendment is far from being our priority, however, when elsewhere in the Bill we are addressing issues of considerable importance, such as the many millions of ordinary people missing from the electoral registers who are therefore unable to vote. I also consider it ironic for Members of this House to claim the right to elect Members of the House of Commons without equally supporting the right of the people to have a say in who sits in this Chamber.
Why Citizenship Education Matters
My Lords, as a young person, I was so susceptible to subversive influences such as BBC television news, Radio 4’s “World at One”, which I listened to every day, and the Guardian, which I bought daily, that by the time I was 14 I was treasurer of my branch of the Liberal Party, and by the time I was 16 I was secretary of the Constituency. I do not suggest for a moment that that is normal for a teenager, but my point is that people are very different and should be treated differently.
Turning to these amendments, the most publicised aspect of this Bill is that which we debated on Monday—the principle of extending the franchise to 16 and 17 year -olds—and I do not wish to go over those arguments again. However, I do wish to say that the good intention of seeking to encourage the engagement of young people in political processes will fail unless we do much more about citizenship education. I accept that there are greater risks to our democracy, especially in the internet age, as most young people rely on information obtained online. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Political and Media Literacy, of which I am an active member, says in its briefing that foundational political and media literacy education is crucial to the health of our democracy. It warns that simply changing the voting age will not in itself encourage more civic responsibility or more sustained participation in democratic processes. I mentioned on Monday how Jersey lowered its voting age to 16 in 2008, but it was not such a successful experience because of the lack of civic education to support it.
The research compiled by the academic advisory group to our APPG reveals both an overwhelming desire among young people to engage and a troubling structural deficit in how our current school system prepares them for it. Young people rely heavily on social media. They are therefore more vulnerable to digital misinformation and less educated and equipped with critical media literacy tools that should be part of citizenship education.
The noble Baroness, Lady Lister of Burtersett, quoted the excellent research from Dr James Weinberg, who studied information from over 3,000 teachers across over half of all secondary schools. He found that at present, less than a third of secondary schools offer weekly lessons in political or citizenship education and over a quarter provide no democratic education whatsoever. The noble Baroness also drew attention to how state schools serving economically deprived communities provide significantly less political literacy education than private schools or state schools in affluent areas. Democratic confidence must not remain the preserve of the privileged. The danger of ignorance among the most disadvantaged represents a threat to the principles which should underpin a democracy.
Teachers want to deliver this vital education, but they are let down by a lack of institutional support. That is why we must embed statutory guarantees into this Bill. Amendment 23, which I have signed, places a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on progress in strengthening civic education in schools and tracking youth registration rates. I also support Amendment 43 from the noble Baroness, Lady Lister of Burtersett. Schools are the most trusted institutions for learning about democracy. I hope that the Government will accept the principle of these amendments, as they are essential to making the aims of the Bill in relation to extending the franchise work meaningfully and in a safe way.