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Presiding Officer

Young Scots gather at Parliament

23 November 2007

MSPs from across the political spectrum met with more than 100 young people from around Scotland at an event at the Parliament on Thursday (22 November).

Entitled ‘Young People and Your Democracy’, the event was organised by the British Youth Council (BYC).

Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP commended the event for helping young people to learn more about the Parliament’s workings and to meet their elected representatives.

Mr Fergusson said:

"Here in the Scottish Parliament, we are increasingly impressed by the enthusiasm of young people across Scotland who are making significant differences at a local and national level.

"It is here that many young people have raised their voice at our participative events about what can be done to improve the lives of young people in Scotland, what they think of Europe, about poverty and development in Africa, about climate change and how Scotland should spend its money.”

Mr Fergusson discussed the importance for the Parliament of reaching young people through activities such as the Parliament’s education visit programme, which involved 25,000 pupils from schools across Scotland during the last Parliamentary session.

He also discussed the MSPs in Schools Project, launched in 2005, and which by June next year, will have involved some 400 schools across Scotland as far as the Isles of Muck, Barra, Skye and Lewis.

Background – British Youth Council

The British Youth Council is the national youth council of the UK and represents a coalition of young people who’ve joined together through national, regional and/or local youth organisations. Their membership and network numbers includes over 170 organisations and 400 youth councils.

Photography

Photographs of the event are available by contacting Andrew Cowan at the Media Relations Office on 0131 348 6269 or andrew.cowan@scottish.parliament.uk.

For further information, the Scottish Parliament media contact is:

Kallon Basham: 0131 348 6088
RNID Type talk calls welcome
Email: kallon.basham@scottish.parliament.uk