Editorial note: The Caymanian Journal (TCJ) received a telephone call from a Harneys representative on the morning of 7 October 2026. The representative said the firm remained engaged with Parliament and would provide further comment in writing in due course. TCJ intends to update this article or report separately once that comment is received.

The Cayman Islands Youth Parliament began the weekly meetings of its 20th session on 29 September 2026 without confirmed funding from Harneys, the law firm that has paid for it for nine years, according to Parliament's website and the Clerk's answers to The Caymanian Journal (TCJ).

Its chairman, Kenneth Bryan MP, said in a statement from the Youth Parliament Committee sent to TCJ on 25 September that the programme "remains fully active, fully supported, and steadfast in its mission", and that developments in the United Kingdom, where the government has not committed to funding its own youth parliament beyond March 2027, "will have no bearing on the operations or future of our local program". The Clerk of Parliament, Zena Merren-Chin, told TCJ by email on 21 September that 11 nominations had been received a day before the 22 September deadline, that about 25 Youth Parliamentarians enrol in a typical session, and that Harneys, which by its own account has sponsored the programme for nine consecutive years, had not yet confirmed its support for 2026-2027. Asked whether the sponsorship had been renewed, she replied: "waiting on confirmation", and said there was no other sponsor.

Neither of the two UK developments the statement responds to reaches Cayman. Young people here cannot stand or vote in the UK Youth Parliament, and a separate bill extending the UK vote to 16 and 17 year olds applies to UK elections only. The voting age here is 18 under the Cayman Islands Constitution.

TCJ asked Parliament by email on 2 October how many Youth Parliamentarians are enrolled in the 20th session and from which schools and universities, whether Harneys' sponsorship has now been confirmed, and whether there is a proposed budget for the session. Parliament had not replied by 5 October. Its website's page for the 20th session, published after the first meeting, says the participants "will spend the next several months learning about Parliamentary procedures and developing a motion or bill of their choosing" for a live debate at 10:00am on 8 March 2027 at the House of Parliament, to be televised on CIGTV and the Cayman Islands Government YouTube channel; it does not list the participants or name a sponsor.

What the chairman said and what the UK record shows

Mr Bryan's statement described the UK position as "the decision taken by UK organizers to re-evaluate and reform their engagement mechanisms". The UK record puts the decision with the department that funds the programme rather than with its organisers, and describes it in similar terms. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the House of Commons in a written answer on 30 March 2026 that it "has confirmed funding the UK Youth Parliament for the next financial year 2026-2027". BBC News reported on 17 September 2026 that the department had not committed to funding beyond March 2027, and quoted a government source as saying the government "has not committed to continuing the programme in its current form". Vicky Foxcroft MP, the minister responsible, told a Westminster Hall debate on 9 September 2026 that the government was "working closely with young people and partners, including Members of the Youth Parliament, to co-design the Government's work to increase young people's involvement in democracy and decision making", and would "share the outcomes of that work later in the autumn". The National Youth Agency, which runs the UK programme under the department's grant, has not announced a reform of its own. Mr Swallow, who stood for the UK Youth Parliament at 14, told BBC News in the same 17 September report that it would be "short-sighted to cut off funding to a scheme" that had campaigned for votes at 16; Jack Rankin MP, a Conservative, was reported in the same piece as having said in 2025 that it "should not receive taxpayers' money".

The statement said the committee was "actively working to expand our reach" and strengthen its curriculum. Ms Merren-Chin said no evaluation of the programme's outcomes had been carried out.

The UK programme has been evaluated. Mr Swallow told the 9 September debate that the department commissioned IFF Research in 2023 and that the evaluation "found that the programme is delivering on its intended goals", and that of the previous intake "about 52% ... were women, compared with 41% of MPs; 40% had an ethnic minority background, compared with 14% of us". BBC News reported that the same review, published in October 2025, found that only a quarter of young people knew the programme existed and that some schools felt excluded from it. The UK programme has already changed hands once: the government appointed the National Youth Agency to run it in May 2024 after the British Youth Council, its deliverer since 2011, closed, according to a Department for Culture, Media and Sport release of that month.

The 20th session

Invitations to nominate went to Cayman's schools and universities on 17 August 2026, Ms Merren-Chin said, and the first meeting was held at 3:30pm on 29 September at the House of Parliament. Nothing was outstanding before the session could open, she said. The Youth Parliament Organising Committee is Mr Bryan with Pearlina McGaw-Lumsden MP, Roy Tatum MP and Dwayne Seymour MP, Ms Merren-Chin said. The programme, run through the Cayman Islands branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, is open to young people aged 15 to 25, who are nominated by their schools or universities rather than elected, prepare speeches, motions and bills at the House of Parliament through the autumn and winter, and debate them in the chamber in March. The 18th session began on 1 October 2024 and the 19th on 30 September 2025; the 19th session's debate was held on 9 March 2026, with De-Andre Beckford as Speaker, Raniah Berry as Premier and Johanah O'Connor as Leader of the Opposition, according to Parliament's release of 17 March 2026. The programme's scope has widened since Harneys first sponsored it: a release of January 2020, marking the firm's fourth year, described it as aimed at students aged 14 to 19 from government and private high schools; by the 18th session, in 2024, Parliament and the firm were describing it as open to young people aged 15 to 25 nominated by schools and universities. The Clerk's 11 nominations against a typical enrolment of about 25 therefore came from a wider pool than the programme drew on in 2020.

What the money buys

Parliament supplied TCJ with the proposed budgets it prepared for the sponsor for each of the last four sessions. The budgets for the 2022-2023, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 sessions are identical, at CI$8,120 each, covering plaques, certificates, padfolios, a car rental and hotel for a Cayman Brac student and chaperone, six return flights for two Cayman Brac students at CI$2,300, lunches for six Saturday rehearsals, catering for the debate, a group photograph and gift certificates. The proposed budget for the 19th session, 2025-2026, rose to CI$9,594.93. Its largest items were plaques and trophies at CI$2,386.00, catering for debate day at CI$1,632.93, gift certificates at CI$1,450.00, lunches for six Saturday rehearsals at CI$1,460.36 and backpacks, replacing padfolios, at CI$1,416.96. A further CI$2,892.78 in airfares for Cayman Brac students, six trips, is shown separately as met by Cayman Airways.

Ms Merren-Chin said the budget "is covered by the sponsorship" and excludes Parliament staff time. She did not give the value of the sponsorship received in each year, or say whether it is recorded as public revenue or paid directly to suppliers, which TCJ had also asked. About 25 young people have been enrolled in each session from the 15th to the 19th, she said.

Harneys announced on 17 February 2026 that it was sponsoring the programme "for the ninth consecutive year". Mr Bryan said in the firm's release that its support "has played an important role in helping us sustain this programme and encourage youth participation in shaping the future of our islands". Jessica Williams, co-head with Ben Hobden of the firm's Litigation & Insolvency and Restructuring teams in the Cayman Islands, said in the same release: "We're honoured to continue supporting this incredible programme." The release did not state the sum.

On the Clerk's figures the 19th session cost about CI$384 for each of 25 participants, before staff time and before the airfares met by Cayman Airways, while the UK programme's grant of £453,000 for the last year, reported by BBC News, works out at about £1,510 for each of its 300 members and covers an annual conference, travel and staff. Peter Swallow MP, who opened the 9 September debate, told the Commons that the UK programme's costs "in departmental terms—certainly in Government terms—they are extremely small and extremely good value. The last full two-year funding commitment given by DCMS came to only £750,000."

A former UK member on votes at 16

Alex Nurton, a former Member of Youth Parliament for Surrey, elected in 2024 at 16, who chaired the programme's Votes at 16 committee, told TCJ by email on 21 September 2026 that the current UK members "have been elected on a two-year mandate, which is meant to end in March 2028 but looks likely to end prematurely in March 2027". He said he did not speak for the National Youth Agency.

On votes at 16, he said the strongest argument against the change "would be that young people are unprepared. I couldn't agree more. But nothing magically changes when you turn 18, and if we don't improve access to political education, we risk a generation of young people who don't know how to affect change and how powerful their vote is." The case against the Bill was put at its Commons second reading on 2 March 2026 by Gregory Stafford MP: "Why, if the Secretary of State is allowing 16-year-olds to vote, is he not allowing them to stand for Parliament? If somebody can vote for the lawmaker, they can be a lawmaker. That is the logical incoherence in his argument."

The franchise here is set by an Order in Council

The Representation of the People Bill passed its second reading in the House of Lords on 14 September 2026 and awaits committee stage there. It has not received Royal Assent. The franchise in Cayman is set by the Cayman Islands Constitution Order 2009, a UK Order in Council. Section 90 entitles a person to be registered as an elector if he or she "is a Caymanian" and "has attained the age of eighteen years", and section 61 requires a candidate for Parliament to have "attained the age of 21 years", the same gap between voting and standing that Mr Stafford MP raised. The last change to the voting provision was the Cayman Islands (Constitution) (Amendment) Order 2008, which allowed a person who will turn 18 by polling day to register before their birthday. The last time Cayman's legislature addressed the two sections together was Private Member's Motion No. 1 of 2020-2021, passed on 15 October 2020, which affirmed sections 90 and 61 in response to a 2019 UK Foreign Affairs Committee recommendation on voting rights for resident British citizens; it did not concern age.

As of 5 October 2026 no proposal to change the voting age appeared on the websites of the Parliament of the Cayman Islands, the Constitutional Commission or the Elections Office, and Parliament had not published the names or number of Youth Parliamentarians enrolled for the 20th session or the sponsor for it.