The Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP) is a youth-led, democratic organisation which aims to represent the young people of Scotland. The SYP is made up of around 166 democratically elected representatives aged 14–25 from across Scotland. Representatives are known as Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs). The SYP uses the Scottish Parliamentary constituency structure to elect its members, with elections generally taking place every two years - every constituency area elects two MSYPs using the Single Transferable Vote electoral system. Over 71,000 votes were cast in the 2019 SYP elections. Around 22 MSYPs represent Voluntary Organisations such as The Boys Brigade, Scouts Scotland, LGBT Youth Scotland and Haggeye instead of constituencies. These MSYPs are directly elected by the Organisations they represent. The SYP meets three times a year at events called sittings. These usually take place in different Scottish Local Authorities, but were held online between 2020 and 2022 due to COVID-19. SYP returned to in-person sittings in July 2022 with SYP77 being held in Cumbernauld The four core values of the SYP are rights, democracy, inclusion and political impartiality. SYP is non-party political, which means MSYPs do not organise themselves along party lines within the Youth Parliament. All MSYPs essentially sit as independents to avoid partisan politics interfering with their representation of young people, however allegations of a "cliquey culture" and bias towards certain parties has been levied against the majority of the membership, especially the youth leadership.

Campaigns

The SYP campaigns on various issues which affect Scotland's young people. It has been an advocate for Votes at 16 since its inception in 1999 and has campaigned for it ever since, notably ensuring that Young People aged 16 and 17 could vote in the Referendum on Scottish Independence in 2014. SYP has campaigned on a range of issues: from its campaign to achieve Equal Marriage – Love Equally - to their Young Carers Campaign – Care. Fair. Share. SYP's 2017-18 campaign - Right Here Right Now - centred on improving the protection of young people's rights in Scotland, and was successful in securing a commitment from the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) would be incorporated into Scots Law. The Scottish Youth Parliament's 2018–2019 campaign was "All Aboard", which sought to improve young people's experiences of public transport in Scotland. At the July 2019 Sitting of the Scottish Youth Parliament, MSYPs choose environmental protection and climate change as their next national campaign. The campaign was named "Pack it Up, Pack it In", and was formally launched in October 2019. In October 2020, it was decided by the organisation that the next national campaign will focus on a rights-based approach to the COVID-19 Pandemic recovery in Scotland. This campaign was titled 'Bounce Back'. In March 2022 MSYPs voted on 4 campaign priorities for the 2021-2023 membership. The four campaign priorities were; Right to Food, Climate Crisis, Educational Attainment and Drug Misuse as a Public Health Issue. The 2021-2023 campaign priorities were followed in March 2024 with the selection of three new national campaigns for the 2023-2025 membership. The campaigns selected were "Increase mental health training and education", "Invest in and protect youth work services" and "End gender-based violence" and where selected following consultation by MSYPs with over 4000 young people from across Scotland.

Governance

The Board are responsible for the strategic direction of the organisation and are officially the charity's legal custodians. The charity is supported by a Staff Team of 13. The current chief executive officer and company general secretary is Jamie Dunlop. As the organisation is youth-led the chair, vice-chair and trustees are all young people. They are democratically elected during SYP's Annual General Meeting by the membership of that term. The Current Chair is Ellie Craig MSYP, and the current vice-chair is Olivia Brown MSYP. The Board of Trustees consists of the chair, vice-chair, and; Beau Johnston MSYP, Alannah Logue MSYP, Tamsin Gold MSYP, Daniela Onyewuenyi MSYP and Shafa Waqas MSYP. Maya McCrae MSYP, Convener of the Health, Wellbeing and Sport Committee, serves as Convener's Trustee. The 2024-2025 Board is SYP's first-ever all-female Board of Trustees.

History

The group has previously held meetings in the General Assembly Rooms (former temporary home of the Scottish Parliament) in Edinburgh ) and also within the new Scottish Parliament building., most recently in 2024.

Partner organisations

The Scottish Youth Parliament works in partnership with many other organisations, including:

Chairs

The Chair of SYP is elected, usually annually, by MSYPs. A normal term of service is twelve months, although some Chairs have served for longer periods of time for reasons such as a delay in the SYP elections, and some for shorter periods of time for reasons such as resignation. The Chair of SYP is a voluntary position and is unpaid. The Chair convenes and facilitates meetings of the Board and the full Scottish Youth Parliament. They are also the primary ambassador of SYP to the public. There have, to date, been 21 Chairs of SYP since 2000.

Chief Executive Officers

Current Membership

The current composition of MSYP's for the 2023-2025 membership can be found below: https://syp.org.uk/syp-elections-2023-results/

Alumni

Ross Greer, Green MSP for the West of Scotland and the youngest MSP ever elected to the Scottish Parliament (2016–present), is a former MSYP. Danielle Rowley, former Labour MP for Midlothian (2017–19), is a former MSYP.