British Youth Council / UK Youth Parliament – Library Archive

In March the British Youth Council charity, which had hosted the multi-funded UK Youth Parliament between 2011 and 2024, closed. Its website ceased to function a month later. Young Voices Heard collects and archives publicly available examples of good practice as part of its ongoing research programme, including those shared/published by BYC/Youth Parliament. These are grouped below for reference. We have identified this WebArchive of the original BYC website with over 2,500 pages still live Here. If you have any updates or other documents of interest, please get in touch by email  info@youngvoicesheard.org.uk.

British Youth Council:

BYC – Vision, Mission, Values, Charitable Objects and Powers (extract from last Annual Review, and Constitution – (full sources below)

 

 

Archive – Contents (Scroll down for documents)

1/ Manifesto 23-24 – a useful reference point for members national views.

2/ BYC Annual Report 22/23; – a useful reference to understand BYC Vision, Mission, Aims, Governance and work. (also see Mem and Arts of the Charitable Incorporate Company, and Rule Book.

3/ Mem and Arts – for the governance of the Charitable In Company

4/ BYC Rule Book – with details of memberships and procedures

5-8/ BYC Youth Select Committee Reports – examples of prioritised topics for BYC Youth Voice inquiries. These committees were an mixture of elected representatives (eg 2 seats for UK Youth Parliament members) and other young stakeholders from a range of organisations and specialisms. (The model was changed following the closure of BYC in 2024 when it is exclusively MYPs.)

9/ BYC Code of Conduct

UK Youth Parliament:

1/ Manifestos 24-26 and  22-24

2/ Make Your Mark Results 2024

3/ UKYP Youth Select Committee report 2025

3/ Rule Book 2024

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1/ BYC Manifesto

The youth councils manifesto was a constantly evolving document, updated every year with new proposals and amendments at the annual council meeting of members. It was used to inform an-all members vote to prioritise five issues for campaigning. These campaigns were promoted to relevant decision-makers and to determine the topic of the annual Youth Select Committee inquiry (a partnership with Parliament) . Frequently misnamed a UKYP project this was a BYC/Parliament project, which was part of the multi-funded programme of activities also supported by Government called “Youth Voice”.  (Two of the eleven seats were reserved for MYPs, two for Youth Councillors, one for a Young Mayor, and one elected representative each from the three nations. The remaining seats were allocated to ensure balanced representation and/or reflect knowledge of the topic of the YSC inquiry.   Examples of YSC reports and listed here.Since the BYC closed in early 2024, the Youth Select Committee model was revived by the Youth Parliament and is entirely made up of members of MYPs and published a report on Social Media and Youth Violence in 2025 which can be found under the UKYP archive below.

BYC Manifesto 23-24 (The last version when the UKYP contract with DCMS was delivered by the British Youth Council)

 

2/ BYC Annual Report 21/22  (from Charity Commission website) Although the charity continued for two more years it didn’t publish another annual report but this is still a useful summary of its vision, mission, governance and activities.

 

3/ BYC Mem and Arts of the Charitable Inc Company (circulated at the last Annual Council Meeting 2023)

 

4/ BYC Rule Book (Circulated at the last Annual Council Meeting 2023)

 

5/ BYC Youth Select Committee Report 2024 “The Impact of the Cost of Living”   the last in a series of annual reports into youthled inquiries, before the BYC charity closed. It conducted in partnership with Parliament. Each report was matched with a response from the relevant Government Department. We are tracking to track these down to include in this archive.

 

6/ BYC Youth Select Committee Report 2019 “Knife Crime”

 

7/ BYC Youth Select Committee Report 2018 “Work Experience”

 

8/ BYC Youth Select Committee Report 2014 “Votes at 16”

 

Other Reports We have hard copy reports from previous years. If you have a PDF of any of these you can please get in touch: 2012 Transport, 2013 Curriculum for Life; 2015 Mental Health; 2016 Racism and Religious Discrimination, and 2017 Body Image. There were no reports in 2020-23.

 

9/ BYC Code of Conduct 

 

10/ BYC History 1948 – 2010 (other info can be found on Wikopedia but it contains some omissions and errors)

 

UK YOUTH PARLIAMENT

1/ Make Your Mark ballot – results published by UKYP @National Youth Agency 2024

 

2/ Youth Select Committee (UKYP) Youth Violence and Social Media 2025

 

3/ UKYP Manifestos

2024-2026 (published by NYA) 

2022-2024 (published by BYC)

 

4/ UKYP Rule Book (updated Feb 24)

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