The United Kingdom first participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest at the inaugural 2003 edition which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The United Kingdom is one of the sixteen countries to have made its debut at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003, which took place on 15 November 2003 at the Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark.

[11] ITV then announced in May 2004 that due to financial and scheduling reasons, the contest would in fact not take place in the United Kingdom after all.

[12] In August 2004, it was reported that Granada Television, who would have co-produced the show with Carlton, had decided to pull out of the deal claiming that the original allocated budget of €1,500,000 to produce the contest was too small.

[7] On 21 November 2013, it was revealed that Edinburgh-based 98.8 Castle FM (a non EBU member) would broadcast the 2013 contest live to listeners in Scotland.

[24] It was also reported that Scottish broadcaster BBC Alba had also been in talks with the EBU to enable Scotland to participate in 2020, having previously debuted in Eurovision Choir in 2019.

[28] At a Junior Eurovision press event in May 2021, the EBU stated that they were working to bring the United Kingdom back to the contest, possibly for the 2021 edition.

On 17 December 2021, at a press conference between France Télévisions and the executive supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Martin Österdahl, Österdahl stated that he was positive about talks between the European Broadcasting Union and the BBC about a potential return of the UK to the contest in the future.

[31] On 25 August 2022, it was confirmed that the United Kingdom would return to the contest in 2022, with the BBC replacing ITV as the country's broadcaster.

[32] The BBC internally selected Freya Skye to represent the United Kingdom with the song "Lose My Head" after an audition process held by the broadcaster.

[33] In 2023, the BBC continued the internal process, selecting girl group Stand Uniqu3 to represent the United Kingdom in Nice, France with the song "Back To Life".

In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov.