To ask the Assembly Commission for an update on the Youth Assembly.

Mr K Buchanan

With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will group questions 6 and 15, so I may need a few extra seconds to give my response. I thank both Members for their questions. As Members may recall, the House was last updated on the Youth Assembly on 8 December. Since then, a number of important developments have occurred, and I will outline some of those for Members. Assembly officials have continued their work to develop the practicalities and arrangements needed to enable the Youth Assembly to start its work. In particular, a co-design panel of young people was established to help to shape the principles and best approach to recruitment for the Youth Assembly. The panel met during December and January and produced and agreed its report at the end of January. Based on the panel's findings, officials have subsequently designed and developed proposals for the recruitment of the members of the Youth Assembly. In addition, the Speaker established a Youth Assembly advisory group to provide the Commission with advice and guidance from the youth sector and other relevant stakeholders in relation to establishing, implementing and reviewing the operation of the Youth Assembly during its two-year pioneer phase. The group comprises the Speaker; senior Assembly officials; Professor Laura Lundy from the Centre for Children's Rights at Queen's University; the Children's Commissioner, Koulla Yiasouma; and adults and young people from the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, YouthAction and the Education Authority.

The recruitment proposals developed by officials were presented to and considered by the advisory group at the start of this month. The group very much welcomed the engagement with young people and the co-design panel report. The group also provided useful and practical advice and endorsed the concept of the recruitment proposals. Officials subsequently considered the group’s advice, refined the proposals and presented them to the Commission at a meeting last Thursday. The Commission is now considering them, and a decision will be taken soon. As we look ahead, subject to agreement, it is anticipated that the recruitment of members of the Youth Assembly will take place during April and May, in the hope that it will be able to meet for the first time before the summer. That is a challenging timescale, not least because of the current public health situation, but we are committed to doing all that we can to meet that aim. Finally, it is worth emphasising that the work and proceedings of the Youth Assembly will not be party political and that its members will represent their lived experiences and the views of young people in general.

Ms S Bradley

I thank the Commission member for the answer and welcome the detail, particularly on the timeline for recruitment. Will he elaborate on how the Commission will make sure that any Youth Assembly reflects our increasingly diverse society? Does he anticipate that the use of technology, as he is so ably demonstrating today, will be used as a tool to allow more young people to engage with this place?

Mr K Buchanan

If I may, I will take your second question on technology first. The aim is for the Youth Assembly to be operating prior to the summer. Restrictions will obviously need to have eased to allow 90 young people to be in the Chamber, so I suspect that technology will be used at that stage, purely for social-distancing reasons. I assure the Member that all section 75 groupings will be included. The method of selection will be, first, three members from the 18 constituencies. That gives 54 members, which will provide a broad spectrum of members from across Northern Ireland. We will ensure that the remaining 36 members reflect all section 75 groupings. It is important that that happens. A random selection approach will be used. For example, if Mid Ulster had three female members in the initial 54 members, the selection process to incorporate the remaining 36 members would counterbalance that, if you understand the point that I am getting at. I assure the Member that the membership will cover all section 75 aspects.

Mr K Buchanan

I thank the Member for her question. My understanding is that the 90 members will have it very much in their own destinies. Ultimately, the 90 young people will be a young persons' assembly. Out of that, there will be up to four Committees, and the young people will agree which Assembly Committees they will, for want of a better word, shadow. Effectively, there will be a two-year test phase, with the young people heading in whatever direction they see fit and "shadowing" — we will use that word — whatever Assembly Committees they want to follow. It will be a two-year programme. Depending on how well that goes, it will be developed, and it will be up to future Commission members to see how far it goes. The Youth Assembly will very much be driven by those within it.

Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Beggs)

That is the end of the period for questions to the Assembly Commission. I invite Members to take their ease for a few moments before we return to the debate on the coronavirus restriction regulations. Apologies: I understand that we have finished debating the coronavirus restriction regulations. After our brief interlude, we will begin the Committee motion.