I wanted to reassure your readers that the issue of lowering the voting age to 16 has not been ruled out (CYP Now, 7-13 November).Any decision to lower the voting age rests with Parliament, not with the Electoral Commission.
We published a report in 2004, Age of Electoral Majority, in which we recommended the voting age should remain at 18 until the impact of citizenship education could be assessed. The government's recent green paper on constitutional reform announced the launch of a Youth Citizenship Commission which will examine whether reducing the voting age would increase political participation.
Andrew Scallan, director of electoral administration and boundaries, Electoral Commission
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