My day with Lord McKenzie

Hannah Campbell-Wharam, age 14, from Derbyshire, recently shadowed Lord McKenzie, a minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government, as part of The Youth of Today's ministerial shadowing programme. Here are her thoughts from the day:

“The day started with a meeting with Lord McKenzie’s secretary who talked me through what I would do and get to see that day and told me some information about Lord McKenzie. I then got to go along to a meeting with Lord McKenzie on health and safety laws. This was one of my favourite parts of the day as I got to see what a meeting on real issues, like safety in the workplace, was about. They talked in detail about how health and safety should be improved in order to lower the amount of injuries at work.

As Lord McKenzie had an extremely busy day, he had to go to another meeting while I was at lunch. Afterwards I got to go into the House of Lords and watch Lords’ questions. I really enjoyed this part as it was extremely interesting to see how a bill passes and a law is made. It was very surprising to see how long it takes!

The day also made me realise how hard ministers work and how long their days are! From shadowing Lord McKenzie I learnt that they have very little spare time. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all seem to be taken up by meetings! I also learnt how much diplomacy, patience and leadership is involved in being a minister and gave me brilliant insight into the life of a minister.”

Aged 13-19? Interested in shadowing a government minister? Apply now.