It has been reported that the Labour Party plans to lower the voting age from 18 to 16.

Government Response: Department for Constitutional Affairs

A spokesman for the department for constitutional affairs said: "We are very grateful to the Electoral Commission for its work. There has been considerable interest in the issue of voting age and the age of candidacy, and the Commission's report sets out a very thorough discussion of these issues.
 
"We are giving due consideration to the Commission's recommendations before
we reach a view."

Forum Response: Local Government Information Unit

Dennis Reed, chief executive of the LGIU, said: "If reports that ministers still favour votes at 16 are true, it would be broadly welcomed in local government. It was unfortunate that the Electoral Commission recently did not recommend that 16 and 17-year olds should enjoy democratic rights that reflect their responsibilities. 
 
"Some of the reasons the Commission gave for sticking with the existing voting age are extremely dubious. In particular, the idea that reducing the voting age would produce a short term fall in voter turnout demonstrates that a range of causes of low electoral turnout need to be tackled. This is exactly what the LGIU and others have been saying. It is a poor and defeatist reason not to proceed with votes at 16.
 
"By their own logic, the Electoral Commission should consider raising the minimum voting age to 60, given that the tradition of higher turnouts among older voters would see the turnout figures look artificially better.
 
"The Electoral Commission also produced the ill-thought out notion of exploring the idea of different minimum voting ages for different elections, as if some elected positions are more valued than others.
 
"As welcome as the Commissions's recommendation to reduce the minimum age for candidature to 18 was, votes at 16 remains one essential step among many needed to reinvigorate local democracy. The LGIU has never been carried away with the over-zealous idea that votes at 16 alone will transform the landscape. Along with all the new methods of voting being pioneered, there must also be other radical reforms across two broad areas.
 
"Firstly, the unnecessary and often petty barriers that prevent or discourage people standing for election need to be removed. One example is as the draconian political restrictions that bar many public sector workers from participating in local politics.
 
"Secondly, we must ensure that local elections become important again by making councils more influential locally and giving the young and not-so-young reasons to vote. This means rejecting the idea of scattering public service functions amongst numerous single purpose boards, tackling the unelected quango state and ensuring that the development of regional government means more devolution and not more centralisation. The local authority finance issues that are currently up for discussion are also central to the power of local government. Having most council finance raised locally would be the real leap forward for local democracy."

Forum Response: British Youth Council