Westminster visits not being taken up by NI pupils

Only one Parliament outreach visit has taken place in schools in Northern Ireland in the past four years, figures obtained by BBC News NI show.

That compares to 52 visits in Scotland in the same period and 59 in Wales.

As a result, the UK Parliament is to recruit a full-time education officer to promote its work in NI.

Despite help with transport costs, NI had the fewest number of school visits to the Houses of Parliament of all UK nations and regions since 2015.

There are parliamentary education officers covering Scotland, Wales and nine regions in England.

An internal Parliament document making the case for a full-time officer in Northern Ireland said there was a "gap" in the service.

"Currently, the outreach officer for the north-west of England delivers to a very limited number of community events in NI where possible," it said.

It said there were "nine events in 2017/18 reaching 197 people and a total of 37 children were engaged with during the same period".

"This is far less than we are able to deliver across the rest of the UK where each outreach officer is expected to reach around 11,000 school children and 700 adults per year," it added.

Only two school groups from Northern Ireland on average make visits to the Houses of Parliament every month, the document said.

That is despite a travel subsidy of up to £1,600 per group visit.

There have been 86 visits by Northern Ireland schools to Parliament since 2015, compared to 161 from Scotland and 217 from Wales.

In some regions of England, more than 1,000 school groups visited Parliament in the same period.

A parliamentary spokesperson said recruitment for the new NI role was due to take place over the summer.

"This new role will allow us to reach new and first-time audiences that may not be able to visit Westminster or would not normally engage with Parliament or its public engagement services," they said.

According to the UK parliament document seen by BBC News NI, Northern Ireland Assembly staff have provided advice about the recruitment process.

"Given the specific political sensitivities of Northern Ireland, it is considered to be advantageous for us to have a dedicated resource with an understanding of and sensitivity to the local political background and how that fits into the work of Parliament to help widen our reach across this region," it said.

The initial cost of filling the post - including salary, training, travel, subsistence and marketing - is expected to be about £70,000.

DUP MP Ian Paisley, who recently raised the issue in the House of Commons, urged more schools to take part.

"In the absence of devolution, the role of representative democracy is taken on fully in Westminster," he said.

"It is essential that schoolchildren from Northern Ireland are given identical access to learn about the process of law-making and good governance."