After announcing a general election for July 4, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been outlining plans for what a Conservative government would do if it stayed in power.
This includes a proposed National Service, making a full-time placement in the armed forces for 12 months or spending one weekend a month for a year “volunteering” in their community mandatory for young people.
“This is a great country but generations of young people have not had the opportunities or experience they deserve and there are forces trying to divide our society in this increasingly uncertain world,” said Mr Sunak.
“I have a clear plan to address this and secure our future. I will bring in a new model of national service to create a shared sense of purpose among our young people and a renewed sense of pride in our country.”
Here’s a closer look at the proposed plan and how it might work.
How would the National Service work?
Home Secretary James Cleverly has been on a media tour since Mr Sunak announced the plans for the National Service, answering questions and shedding further light on the plan.
Affecting 18-year-olds, young people would take part in one of two streams: military service or community volunteering.
The former would involve 30,000 teenagers spending one year working full-time in the armed forces.
They would need to apply and undertake certain tests, used to determine where they would be sent.
The pathway would reportedly not involve combat but instead focus on “logistics, cyber security, procurement or civil response operations”, according to the Tory plan.
The second option of community volunteering would be the option for the majority of teenagers, where they spend one weekend a month throughout a year, resulting in 25 days in total.
Placements would involve spending time in local communities, working with organisations like the police, the fire department, the NHS, or charities that help older, isolated people.
Is anyone exempt from National Service?
Exemptions have not been clarified, although it has been confirmed that royal children would be expected to take part.
The last time the UK had National Service was during the Second World War, and it only covered able-bodied men.
It could be that disabilities could also result in a medical exemption, as blindness or certain illnesses did during the Second World War, but that hasn’t yet been officially stated.
Women will not be exempt from the proposed National Service.
What happens if you don’t serve?
Although National Service is mandatory, Mr Cleverly told Sky News that there will be no “criminal sanctions”.
"Nobody will be compelled to do the military element," he continued.
Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan also didn’t rule out the possibility of parents being fined if their children didn’t take part, despite the National Service affecting young people already over the age of 18 and therefore adults in their own right.
"To those who complain that making it mandatory is unreasonable, I say: citizenship brings with it obligations as well as rights,” wrote Mr Sunak in The Mail on Sunday, adding: “Being British is about more than just the queue you join at passport control."
