People & Parliament

The declining levels of participation in democratic politics and low levels of turnout at elections is a cause of concern in democracies old and new across the world. In the 2001 election the turnout fell to a post-war low of 59%. What was more shocking was that only 40% of those aged between 18 and 35 bothered to vote. The turnout figure only rose slightly to 61% in the 2005 election. A healthy democracy needs an active and engaged citizenry.

The Leader of the House of Commons is pursuing work in two main areas to tackle this issue - through the work of the Select Committee on Modernisation and through his chairmanship of the Cabinet sub-committee on electoral issues (MISC24).

This section details some of the work undertaken in this area.