HM Government

Written Evidence from Her Majesty’s Government

Introduction

1. The Government welcomes the Welsh Affairs Committee’s interest in its plans to restore public confidence in our political system in the United Kingdom through the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (the "Bill").

2. This Memorandum follows the structure of the Committee’s questions contained in the press notice announcing the inquiry.

Equalisation of Parliamentary constituencies in the UK

3. The Bill delivers a key commitment in the coalition programme for government to provide for the creation of fewer, more equal sized constituencies across the United Kingdom and hold a referendum on the alternative vote system for electing Members of Parliament.

4. The Government believes it is wrong that at present there is significant inequality in the size of parliamentary constituencies, which means that a vote is worth more or less depending on where electors live. Under the proposals in the Bill, an electoral quota for the United Kingdom will be established based on the electoral register. Each constituency would be required to be within 5% either side of the quota, subject to two tightly drawn exceptions.

5. The Boundary Commissions will complete the process of drawing up the new constituencies, and report before October 2013 to allow candidates to be selected for the 2015 election.

6. Reducing the size of the House of Commons will cut the cost of politics and is a cornerstone of the reforms this Government has proposed. Reducing the number of MPs will also bring the House of Commons more into line with the size of other legislatures across the world.

The Principle of Equality

7. Equality and fairness across the United Kingdom is an overriding principle of these reforms. It is clearly fair that votes cast at parliamentary elections across the United Kingdom should be of broadly equal value. Currently they are not. Wales is markedly over-represented at Westminster. The Welsh electorate of 2.26 million is almost exactly 5% of the United Kingdom total, yet the 40 parliamentary constituencies in Wales is over 6% of the current total of 650. The electoral quota for Wales’s forty constituencies averages around 56,500, the lowest of the four nations in the United Kingdom. Welsh constituencies now have on average some 20% fewer electors than constituencies in England; almost 14% fewer than constituencies in Scotland; and some 13% fewer than constituencies in Northern Ireland.

8. The Government believes there is no justification for Wales’s continued over-representation at Westminster. Redrawing constituencies will make representation in the House of Commons fairer, and gives everyone’s vote more equal weight, wherever they live. The changes are not short-changing Wales. Following the reforms a vote cast in Wales will be worth the same, no more and no less, than a vote cast elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Wales will continue to have a strong voice at Westminster, with the same degree of representation as elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

9. Within this low electoral quota overall, disparities in the size of constituencies within Wales are also readily evident. For example, the vote of an elector in Arfon, with an electorate of around 41,000, is worth almost twice that of an elector in Cardiff South and Penarth, with an electorate of over 73,000. The votes of electors in Aberconwy, Dwyfor Meirionydd and Montgomeryshire, all with electorates below 50,000, are worth considerably more than those in the Vale of Glamorgan, with an electorate of over 70,000.

10. The Government believes that, again, there is strong justification for ending this manifest inequality. The requirement in the Bill that constituencies should be within a 5% tolerance of the UK electoral quota (around 76,000 using the register from 1 December 2009) will mean constituencies would, in future, have an upper size limit of around 80,000 and a lower limit of a little over 72,000, ensuring a fairer, more equal distribution of electors between constituencies.

Preserved Constituencies

11. There will be only two exceptions to the new rules named in the Bill - the dispersed island groups of Orkney and Shetland and Na h-Eileanan an Iar (the Western Isles). In both of these cases geographical location and remoteness make any change to the boundaries completely impractical. Orkney and Shetland was explicitly excepted in law by the Scotland Act 1998 and the Western Isles has been recognised as an exception in practice since 1918.

12. The Government believes there is no case for other island constituencies to be preserved in the same way. Ynys Môn (Anglesey) for instance has close links to the mainland, including direct connections by road and rail. A new constituency bridging the Menai Straits is perfectly feasible in order to secure a constituency broadly the same size as elsewhere in the country.

13. Excepting the two preserved constituencies, the Government’s priority is that a person’s vote is of equal worth wherever they live in the United Kingdom. That means drawing up constituencies on the basis of a single electoral quota for the United Kingdom, and permitting only a limited variation, not exceeding 5%, from that quota.

The Effect of Devolution

14. Scottish over-representation was substantially reduced by the repeal (in the Scotland Act 1998) of the minimum number of constituencies in Scotland. As a result of devolution, Scottish representation was reduced in 2005 to 59 from the previous total of 72. Some have argued, with the Scottish experience in mind, that Welsh representation should not be reduced unless and until the people of Wales vote in favour of full law-making powers for the Assembly in a referendum. The Government and the Welsh Assembly Government are working towards holding the referendum in the first quarter of 2011, but the Government sees no case for awaiting the outcome of the referendum before implementing the changes set out in the Bill. The purpose of the changes is that all constituencies in Wales, England, Scotland (except the preserved constituencies) and Northern Ireland have broadly the same sized electorates, irrespective of the extent of devolution in these nations.

15. Others have taken an opposing view; that given the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales and the extent of devolution to the National Assembly and the Welsh Assembly Government, Wales’s representation at Westminster should be proportionally less than that of England, not the same. The Government disagrees with this view. Since devolution, Parliament continues to legislate for the whole of the United Kingdom on matters that are non-devolved, including social security, tax, immigration and defence. It is surely right in principle that the people of Wales should have the same level of representation in respect to these matters as the people of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Electoral Rules

16. The current Electoral Rules require each Boundary Commission to draw up seats of equal size in their respective areas of the United Kingdom, and to have regard to local considerations in doing so. But the current rules are flawed, with some rules in tension with each other, and the overall effect is that some constituencies are quite clearly much larger than others.

17. The current rules provide that so far as is practicable parliamentary constituency boundaries in Wales should not cut across the boundaries of the preserved counties. These are the eight administrative counties in Wales established in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994. The 1994 Act also created the concept of preserved counties which are, with some modified boundaries, the areas of the former eight counties.

18. This restriction would significantly impede the creation of constituencies under the new arrangements, and is not included in the new rules for the distribution of seats set out at clause 9 of the Bill. The new rules will allow a Boundary Commission to take into account, to the extent that it thinks fit, special geographical considerations, including in particular the size, shape and accessibility of a constituency; local government boundaries (i.e. the current boundaries of county and county boroughs in Wales); local ties and, after the first review under the new rules (where the overall numbers will be reduced) the inconvenience attendant on such changes.

19. These considerations mean that the Boundary Commissions, including the Boundary Commission for Wales (BCW), can have regard to local factors in drawing up the new constituencies, including particular geographical and social issues in Wales which might have a bearing on the way in which new constituencies are constructed. For example, the BCW could take into account the history and geography of the South Wales Valleys in creating new constituencies in South Wales, subject to the requirements for parity.

Boundary Reviews

20. The Bill provides for more frequent boundary reviews, every five years, keeping constituencies more up to date and reflecting local changes in electorate more accurately. To make this possible, the Government is changing the consultation process in order to speed it up. Under current arrangements, the Boundary Commissions are required to undertake general reviews every eight to twelve years, meaning that more recent changes in electorates are not always reflected in changes to constituency boundaries.

21. The Government is aware of criticisms of this aspect of the proposals. However, it is simply not the case that the public will be unable to have their say on proposals. Leading academics have commented that it would be a major error to assume that the current consultation process largely involves the general public having its say on the recommendations. A recent report by the British Academy Policy Centre also argued that "at recent reviews, the inquiries have had little impact on the Commission’s recommendations in most cases, suggesting that their abolition would not significantly impair the consultation process". Anybody, including members of the public, will still be able to comment on proposals. In fact, the Bill extends the period for representations on proposals from one month to three.

Voter Registration

22. The level of voter registration in the United Kingdom is estimated at 91-93%, broadly comparable to other democracies with voluntary registration, such as France and Canada, and even to countries that have compulsory registration, such as Australia. However, the Government accepts that registration rates can be improved further; the Electoral Commission estimated in 2005 (based on data from 2000) that around 3.5m people in England and Wales were not registered to vote. According to the Commission’s latest available estimates, the level of ‘under-registration’ (i.e. the proportion of the eligible population estimated as not being on the register) rose from 4.8% in1990 to 6% in 2000 (compared to a slight fall from 7.3% to 6.9% in England over the same period).

23. A recent report by the Electoral Commission, The Completeness and Accuracy of the Electoral Register , concluded that it is predominantly densely populated urban areas with significant concentrations of mobile young people which typically have the highest levels of under-registration. The report did not suggest there are registration issues unique to Wales, but rather that a decline in registration rates in metropolitan areas with high population densities is evident in Wales, Scotland and England.

24. The Government is committed to increasing the levels of voter registration. The move to Individual Electoral Registration (IER) provides us with an opportunity to do so. It is important that we introduce IER because the current system is vulnerable to fraud and does not encourage people to take personal responsibility for registering themselves. In introducing the scheme in Wales, Scotland and England, the Government intends to learn from the experience of introducing the scheme in Northern Ireland in 2002. In Northern Ireland, individual registration became a requirement for everyone overnight. We are proposing to speed up the implementation of the scheme, implementing IER from 2014, but no one currently on the register who fails to register individually will be removed from the register before the next general election. This will give people time to get used to the new requirements for electoral registration, and should ensure that registration rates do not reduce significantly in the short term as a result of the move to IER.

25. The Government will also be trialling data matching during 2011; that is comparing the electoral register with other public databases to find the people missing from the register. The aim is to tackle under-registration, including among those specific groups most affected by it, and ensure that every opportunity to register is available to those currently not on the electoral register.

26. We will work closely with the Electoral Commission to ensure that the public is made aware of the changes as they are introduced. The Government will also examine how electoral registration might be integrated into people’s day to day transactions with government, for example when visiting the Post Office or applying for a passport.

27. The Government is mindful that the change to IER should not disproportionately affect those in society who most need protection. The Chair of the Electoral Commission said in her evidence to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee that introducing individual registration would enable the Commission to create focused programmes to improve registration rates among specific communities. Data matching will also allow resources to be targeted better and to make it as easy as possible for those who want to register to do so.

Assembly Constituencies

28. Section 2 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 specifies that the constituencies of the National Assembly for Wales are the parliamentary constituencies in Wales. Clause 11 of the Bill breaks the link, so that fewer parliamentary constituencies in future would not reduce the size of the size of the Assembly. This change has been welcomed by interested parties in Wales.

29. The Bill does not include a mechanism to review and alter Assembly constituencies in future. The Government intends to establish appropriate mechanisms following consultation with interested parties, and will legislate as soon as is practicable following the introduction of these reforms.

30. In the interim, clause 11 also includes transitional provisions to deal with interim reviews of constituencies carried out by the BCW which are ongoing when Part 2 of the Bill comes into force. In effect, the provisions allow the BCW to decide whether or not to continue a review to completion. In practice, any review the Commission chooses to continue would relate only to Assembly constituencies rather than parliamentary constituencies in Wales.

Combination of elections to the National Assembly for Wales and the referendum on using the alternative vote system at UK parliamentary elections

31. The Government is committed to a referendum on whether the voting system for the UK Parliament should be changed from the current "first past the post" system to the alternative vote system.

32. This poll will be held throughout the United Kingdom on 5 May 2011. This is also the day on which elections will be held to the devolved institutions in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as local government elections in England.

Benefits of Combining Polls

33. The Government believes that combining the referendum with these elections makes sense, both practically and financially. Combining elections is not unusual and such a move is likely to increase voter turnout, which is to be welcomed. It is important to trust voters to be able to distinguish between elections to legislatures (and councils) and a referendum on electoral reform.

34. Section 4 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 empowers the Secretary of State by order to change the date of an ordinary Assembly election by up to one month earlier or later than the first Thursday in May. No order can be made unless the Secretary of State has consulted the Welsh Ministers about it. The Government and the Welsh Assembly Government agree that it would not be to anyone’s advantage to ask electors to vote in three polls in the space of a few months (for the Assembly referendum, the AV referendum and the Assembly elections). The Government has no intention of seeking to move the Assembly elections from 5 May 2011.

35. A date for the referendum on full law-making powers is yet to be confirmed. In agreeing a date, the Government will need to be mindful of the likely overlap between the two referendum periods. But the Government believes that the different subject matter of the polls, and therefore the nature of the referendum campaigns, coupled with clear guidance from the Electoral Commission, means that confusion between the two polls is not a significant risk.

Cost Savings

36. By combining the referendum with other elections the costs of accommodation, staff and equipment at polling stations will be shared, enabling savings of the order of £30m across all polls on 5 May. The Government has committed that savings which accrue from combining the referendum with elections to the devolved institutions should be shared equally with the relevant devolved institution - including the Welsh Assembly Government in Wales. The saving in respect to the Assembly Government for the Assembly elections is expected to be around £1m.

37. This saving is in addition to the recent announcement that the Electoral Commission’s costs for its work on the referendum on full law-making powers for the National Assembly, some £2.7m, will be borne by HM Treasury. These savings demonstrate the effectiveness of the Government’s respect agenda in securing positive outcomes for Wales.

September 2010