Yes, if I can, convener.
I welcome the committee’s invitation to attend the meeting and to present the draft order, which will transfer competence to the Scottish Parliament to extend the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds in Scottish Parliament and local government elections.
The terms of the draft order that you are considering this morning have been agreed by the Scottish and United Kingdom Governments to give effect to the recommendation at paragraph 25 of the Smith commission report, which calls on the UK Parliament
“to devolve the relevant powers in sufficient time to allow the Scottish Parliament to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 year olds for the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary elections”.
The powers that are to be devolved through the section 30 order, subject to agreement in this Parliament and at Westminster, are narrowly focused on enfranchising 16 and 17-year-olds. Full powers over Scottish Parliament and local government elections will follow later, through the proposed Scotland bill.
The Scottish Government is satisfied that the draft order that is before the committee will enable the Scottish Government to introduce legislation to lower the voting age for future elections for the Scottish Parliament and for local government elections in Scotland. The draft order also transfers the power to legislate to make provision about registration in order to give effect to any reduction in the minimum voting age. That will allow us to build on one of the key democratic triumphs of the referendum campaign.
As I indicated in the chamber on Tuesday, those of us who witnessed the engagement and enthusiasm of young people as they exercised their democratic rights saw the value of their participation in and their impact on the process. Since the referendum, I have been delighted to see unanimous support across the Parliament for lowering the voting age to 16, and I hope that that support will be demonstrated by agreement to this section 30 order in time for it to be considered by the Privy Council on 19 March.
At the start of the week, the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution published a report on the order. Prompted by your question on Tuesday about the report, convener, Parliament was given the opportunity to make its views known on the points that were raised by the House of Lords committee. The views that were expressed on Tuesday were clear and unambiguous: the decision on whether—and if so, how—to lower the voting age is one for the Scottish Parliament to make. Subject to parliamentary approval of the draft order, the Scottish Government will shortly produce legislation setting out detailed proposals to achieve that aim, and the parliamentary stages that the legislation will go through will provide Parliament with the usual opportunity to consider the details, to seek public views and to debate our proposals.
I look forward to discussing those issues with the committee.