Representation of the People Bill — Written evidence submitted by the Association of Colleges (RPB53)

Representation of the People Bill
Evidence from the Association of Colleges
April 2026

About AoC
The Association of Colleges (AoC) represents more than 98% of further education colleges and 52% of
sixth form colleges in England. Colleges are an essential part of the country’s education system,
educating over 1.6 million students every year and employing approximately 97,000 full-time equivalent
staff. Rooted in local communities, they are crucial in driving social mobility and providing the skills to
boost local and regional economies. Whether it’s through top-class technical education, basic skills or
lifelong learning, colleges help people of all ages and backgrounds to make the most of their talents
and ambitions.

Summary
• This enfranchising of hundreds of thousands of our 16- and 17-year-old students is something AoC
has long campaigned for and strongly welcomes.
• It is an important democratic development - expanding the electorate and bringing new voices and
perspectives into the political process.
• If implemented effectively, there is a particular strength to young people registering to vote whilst
still in an educational setting, with compulsory education and training of 18 in England – with schools
and colleges able to support young people through the process.
• Equally, there is a risk that extending the franchise without investment in supporting young people
through the process could not just be a missed opportunity but could create an early habit of
disengagement.
Colleges and votes at 16
The Representation of the People Bill includes important proposals to lower the voting age to 16 for UK
parliamentary elections, local elections and referendums in England and Northern Ireland, Northern
Ireland Assembly elections, and Police and Crime Commissioner (“PCC”) elections in England and Wales.
This follows moves fr om the Scottish Government, who lowered the voting age to 16 for the Scottish
Independence Referendum in 201 and for all subsequent devolved elections in Scotland, and the Welsh
Government, who lowered the voting age to 16 for all devolved elections in Wales. As such, the Bill
would achieve a new consistent voting age of 16 across the UK nations.
For colleges and schools, votes at 16 represents an opportunity to build on all the educational work we
are already doing to promote political literacy and democratic engagement. We know that voting is
habit forming and lowering the voting age provides a real opportunity to engage young people more
effectively in civic life. We know too that colleges, schools and other education providers have a key role
in supporting young people to understand their democratic rights and to understand political issues –
and that extending the franchise will make this work even more critical.
Voter registration
The Bill also has a focus on voter registration, including proposals that would place a duty on Electoral
Registration Officers to notify eligible, but unregistered citizens, that they will be added to the electoral
register after a notice period , unless they opt out. This would be a very welcome development, and
support registration efforts.
With the extension of the franchise to 16, there will need to be extensive work to ensure that this cohort
registers to vote. Colleges have a key role to play here – and with schools, will be able to embed this in

citizenship and political literacy education. We believe that there is an opportunity to be more ambitious
and are keen to explore scope to integrate college and school enrolment with university registration, as
has occurred with several universities, most notably with the University of Sheffield. AoC is working with
the Politics Project and others to explore proposals here and
Practical issues that the legislation and accompanying guidance needs to take into consideration
Registration
In 2024, 76% of 18–24-year-olds were registered to vote, compared to 99% of 65-74-year-olds (Electoral
Commission, 2024). Only 71% kn ew they need ed photo ID with them when they went to the polling
station and 6% thought they were registered but found out too late that they weren't. The aspiration
should be as near to 100% registration through some form of national auto -registration or supported
registration, possibly linked to early issue of NI numbers or a new ID system.
Participation
In the 2024 General Election, the turnout among 18–24-year-olds was lower than overall: 37% compared
with 73% of those over 65 (Ipsos 2024). The participation rate was even lower for young people from
lower socio-economic groups; 22% of young voters from social groups D and E turned out (Ipsos 2024).
The aspiration should be to achieve a 16-18 year old voter participation rate in the next general election
which is at least as high as for the electorate as a whole.
Education
Engaging first time voters helps to build the skills and confidence for life long civic engagement , and
colleges are well placed to help new voters develop and test their beliefs and opinions, understand the
voting process and participate at the earliest possible opportunity, while receiving impartial support
and guidance. Nearly half of young people told the Electoral Commission they need more information
on how to vote and 45% of 18 -24 year olds said they had seen misleading or inaccurate information
about the process of voting and only 45% trust social media because of the degree of mis - and dis-
information. The aspiration is for every college to be offering all its students a high -quality political
literacy programme so that they are well prepared to participate in democratic processes, including
elections – and having the resourcing that enables this.
AoC supporting colleges
AoC has been working for some time with the Politics Project to support c olleges with democratic
education. They have now secured funding from the Electoral Commission (EC) for a three -year
programme ‘Building to the Ballot’ to support colleges to prepare for Votes at 16 . Both AoC and
alongside the National Association for Managers of Student Services are partners on the project. The
first year of ‘Building to the Ballot’ will include piloting democratic education resources, training, and
administration support and guidance for c olleges on how to navigate safeguarding and impartiality
issues, building staff confidence to support political content in the classroom and designing college -
wide policies to underpin this work.
We are also partners in another EC funded programme with the Association for Citizenship Teachers
(ACT) to develop new Post -16 Citizenship and Democracy Education Toolkit. Both projects will be part
of a comprehensive package of support for colleges, enabling educators to deliver impartial, high quality
democratic education and prepare their students to participate confidently in democratic processes.

For further information or to discuss these themes in more detail, please contact:
David MacKenzie, Public Affairs Manager (AoC) - david.mackenzie@aoc.co.uk / 07553 891837