The Youth Select Committee, pictured above with Rt. Hon. John Bercow, Speaker of the House of Commons (centre).

The Youth Select Committee is a pilot initiative run by the British Youth Council supporting young people to hold inquires into issues they care about to influence policies and legislation.

The Committee's current mandate comes from issues prioritised by members of the British Youth Council and UK Youth Parliament as well as national poll of 65,000 young people. This issue is young people and public transport and the challenges faced by young people in its accessing services, travelling safely and affording them equally.

Over the past few months, the Youth Select Committee invited written evidence submissions and requested views on the following issues:

  • What is young people's experiences of public travel is within their local area and their overall satisfaction with their current service including availability, feeling safe and cleanness?
  • The affordability of fares for all young people (children and students) regardless where they live.
  • The effectiveness of current concessionary fares schemes and local regional initiatives across the UK to enable (young people's aged 18 and under) to access use of services and opportunities, such as education, training or leisure facilities.
  • The accessibility and availability of transports services for disabled young people and those that live in rural communities.
  • The current training public transport staff receive in regards to young people and their needs as a customer.
  • Recommendations on a code of practice for youth using public transport.
  • Which low carbon approaches are being used locally to enable young people to travel.

The collected evidence submitted to the committee is now available to view online, with details of those being called as witnesses to be published shortly.

Find out more...

Watch BYC Vice Chair Dara Farrell introduce the Youth Select Committee and explain its role:

 

Watch Youth Select Committee member Jessica Cheadle discuss the impact she thinks the Youth Select Committee will have on young people's issues with transport: