Jersey Youth Assembly

The Jersey Youth Assembly started in 1998 and allows young people to come into the States Chamber once a year to question Ministers and to debate topics they have chosen.

The Jersey Youth Assembly is held once a year and brings together year 12 and 13 students from the Island’s post-16 schools and colleges (aged up to 25) to spend an afternoon in the States Chamber.

Preparing for the Youth Assembly

The students ask questions of Ministers and debate propositions on topics that they have chosen. Students spend several weeks preparing for the Assembly with their tutors and with staff of the States Greffe and research a topic to present in their proposition.

Youth Assembly schedule

The next Youth Assembly will take place in 2025.

What happens during the Assembly?

The afternoon is designed to mirror as closely as possible a normal States meeting with roll call and prayers at the start before the young participants ask questions of Ministers who are invited to attend. After this period of questions with notice - which follows the format of question time in the States - there is a period of 15 minutes when the students ask questions without notice to the Chief Minister.

After question time the students debate the topics they have chosen and vote at the end of the debate using the electronic voting system. A wide range of propositions have been debated in the Youth Assembly since it started in 1998.

What do students get out of it?

The aim of the Jersey Youth Assembly is to promote a clear understanding of how the Island’s machinery of government works through ‘hands-on’ participation in Jersey’s unique brand of parliamentary democracy.

Students sit in the seats normally occupied by the 49 elected members and are given a unique forum to express their views and contribute to the formal political debate in the Island. As well as developing valuable skills, the Youth Assembly aims to encourage young people to play a more active role in the democratic process in future and to prove that they do have a part to play.

Several of the young people who have taken part in the Youth Assembly in the past have gone on to participate in other initiatives such as the Commonwealth Youth Parliament and the Parlement des Jeunes. It is also an important first step into the world of politics and former participants have been subsequently elected as States Members, including current Deputies Sam Mézec and Alex Curtis.

Download Youth Assembly Minutes 2023

Download Youth Assembly Hansard 2023

Download Youth Assembly Minutes 2022

Download Youth Assembly Hansard 2022

Download Youth Assembly Minutes 2021

Download Youth Assembly Hansard 2021

Download Youth Assembly Minutes 2019 (269kb).pdf