2,000 to attend young people's Question Time

Up to 2,000 teenagers will gather in the capital next month for a major initiative aimed at boosting youth participation in national life.

The Young Citizen's Action Agenda Conference will feature a special edition of BBC1's Question Time, produced by pupils.

A day of debate at Westminster Central-Hall will include sessions hosted by Question Time host David Dimbleby and news presenter Huw Edwards, and a film by journalist Andrew Marr.

The conference will kick off a process that will lead to the publication of a Young Citizen's Action Agenda, which will be handed to Gordon Brown.

The event, supported by the Evening Standard, is being organised by the Institute for Citizenship, whose president is Dimbleby.

Schools in the capital's 74 constituencies have been invited to apply for tickets, with today the deadline for

applications. Pupils were given the chance to produce the Question Time element after winning the Schools Question Time Challenge. One of the four successful schools was Tiffin Girls' in Kingston.

Issues up for discussion include knife crime, the credit crunch, climate change, science and technology and the influence of celebrity culture on young people.

Zandria Pauncefort, the Institute for Citizenship's chief executive, said young people would be asked to consider what "21st-century citizenship" means: "It will be fun but also quite serious, a chance to ask young Londoners what they feel about a whole range of things. It's not party political. This is about why does it matter that we talk about politics and how can we get young people involved.

"We go out to all schools to challenge them to get involved in politics, by asking them to hold their own Question Time."

The conference will include a session on "Why politics matters", led by BBC

10 O'Clock News presenter Edwards, as well as the film by Marr, who presents BBC1's flagship politics show on Sunday mornings. A session on money and the economy will be led by a leading business figure and a representative from the Corporation of London. Dimbleby will host the discussion on 21st-century citizenship.

A survey of young people's views will be published to coincide with the event. A London panel and a UK panel will be set up and will use the research to draw up an "action agenda" which will be presented to Mr Brown later in the year.

The other winners of the 2008 Schools Question Time Challenge were Ringwood School near Bournemouth, Holyhead High in Birmingham and Gwernyfed High in Powys. The special edition of Question Time produced by pupils will be shown on BBC1 on 10 July.