Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2015

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Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2015
Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom in Scotland (Variant 1).svg
Scottish Parliament
Long title An Act of the Scottish Parliament to reduce the voting age to 16 at elections for membership of the Scottish Parliament and local government elections; and for connected purposes.
Citation 2015 asp 7
Introduced by John Swinney, Deputy First Minister Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy
Dates
Royal assent 24 July 2015
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through the Parliament

The Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Act 2015 is an act of the Scottish Parliament which lowered the voting age for Scottish Parliament elections and Scottish local elections from 18 to 16. [1]

Contents

Background

The policy was recommended in the Smith Commission on further devolution. [2]

The Scottish Independence Referendum (Franchise) Act 2013 had extended the franchise for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. [3]

Reception

Annabel Goldie, a Conservative MSP, described it as signalling an "exciting era" for young people in Scotland. [4] Lewis MacDonald, Labour MSP, described the legislation as "a significant amount of change with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of agreement". [4]

Other developments

During the passage of the legislation, amendments to the European Union Referendum Act 2015 were tabled which proposed to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16 for the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, but these were defeated. [5]

References

  1. ↑ Fell, Rory (2 June 2024). "What impact did lowering the voting age have for Scottish elections? What will Keir Starmer's election move mean?". Holyrood . Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  2. ↑ "Cut in Scottish voting age passed unanimously". BBC News. 18 June 2015. Archived from the original on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  3. ↑ Fell, Rory (2 June 2024). "What impact did lowering the voting age have for Scottish elections? What will Keir Starmer's election move mean?". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 9 July 2025. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  4. 1 2 "MSPs back move to lower voting age". The Scotsman . 18 June 2015. Archived from the original on 9 July 2025. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
  5. ↑ Bolton, Doug (18 June 2015). "16 and 17-year-olds given the vote in Scotland, on the same day they are banned from voting in EU referendum". Independent. Archived from the original on 29 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2025.
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