Representation of the People Act 1969

The Representation of the People Act 1969 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.[1] This statute is sometimes called the Sixth Reform Act.[2][3][4]

Representation of the People Act 1969
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to amend the law about the qualification of electors at elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom or at local government elections in Great Britain, and the qualification for election to and membership of local authorities in England and Wales, about the conduct of and manner of voting at those elections and about candidates' election expenses thereat, and otherwise to make provision about matters incidental to those elections, and for purposes connected therewith.
Citation1969 c. 15
Dates
Royal assent17 April 1969

The Act lowered the voting age to 18.

Minimum age for electors

The Act extended suffrage to 18-year-olds, the first major democratic nation to lower its age of franchise to include this age group.[5][6] Previously, only those aged over 21 were permitted to vote. The 1970 United Kingdom general election is the first in which this Act had effect.

Votes were extended to undergraduate students in the constituency of their university. This followed an appeal to the High Court led for the National Union of Students by the Junior Common Room student body of Churchill College, Cambridge University under the guidance of Richard Henry Tizard, founding Fellow of Churchill College.[7]

Significantly, it did not extend the right to stand as a candidate for election to Parliament to under-21s. The age of candidacy for elections in the United Kingdom was lowered from 21 to 18 in 2006, with the passing of the Electoral Administration Act 2006.[8]

Local government

It abolished plural voting in local government, except in the City of London.[9][10]

See also

References
  1. "Representation of the People Act 1969". Hansard.
  2. "1969 Representation of the People Act". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2021. 1969-sixth-reform-act{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. "Members of Parliament Chadderton". www.chadderton-historical-society.org.uk. Retrieved 2 January 2021. Act of 1969 (also known as the Sixth Reform Act){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Kitching, Paula. "Political Reform: Lesson Plan 6: Overview" (PDF). The History of Parliament. p. 3. Create one of the following charts for each of the six Reform Acts{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Bingham, Adrian (25 June 2019). "'The last milestone' on the journey to full adult suffrage? 50 years of debates about the voting age". History & Policy. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  6. Loughran, Thomas; Mycock, Andrew; Tonge, Jonathan (3 November 2021). "Lowering the voting age: three lessons from the 1969 Representation of the People's Act". British Politics and Policy at LSE. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  7. Stephen D. Fisher & Nick Hillman. "Do students swing elections? Registration, turnout and voting behaviour among full-time students" (PDF). HEPI. p. 4.
  8. "Electoral Administration Act 2006". www.legislation.gov.uk. gov.uk. 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  9. Halsey, Albert Henry (1988). British Social Trends since 1900. Springer. p. 298. ISBN 9781349194667.
  10. Peter Brooke (24 February 1999). "City of London (Ward Elections) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 452.
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