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 have been online since early 2020 due to COVID-19.
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.
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