Voting age reduction to 16 goes through in Scotland

The Scottish Elections (Reduction of Voting Age) Bill has now gone through the Scottish legislative process and will shortly receive Royal Assent, bringing into force a reduction to 16 in the voting age for both Scottish Parliament and Scottish local government elections.

It will also, unintentionally but usefully, provide a little bit of a real world split test as to what impact the reduction in voting age to 16 has given that this means for next May’s local and devolved elections it will be 18 in England and Wales alongside the 16 in Scotland.