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The 2013 review of parliamentary constituency boundaries was the first to be conducted under new rules for the distribution of parliamentary constituencies, as set out in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011. This Act substantially changed the rules for the distribution of parliamentary constituencies, providing for the number of parliamentary constituencies to be reduced to 600 (from the current 650), for reviews to be held every five years, and for the electorate of all but four constituencies to be within 5% of the UK average number of electors for a constituency. This last rule was a major departure from the conduct of previous reviews of parliamentary constituency boundaries, and seriously limited the extent to which local ties and existing constituency boundaries were able to be taken into account. We have heard that the proposals for new parliamentary constituencies brought forward during the 2013 Review were not satisfactory.
The 2013 Review was ultimately postponed until after the 2015 general election, but if the rules are not changed the next review will be conducted under the existing rules and it is likely a further set of unsatisfactory proposals will be brought forward.
We have concluded that it would be desirable for the rules to be changed, so that future proposals for new parliamentary constituencies are acceptable to Parliament, elected representatives and constituents. The key recommendations we have made are:
· That the allowable variance for the electorate of each constituency from the UK electoral quota be increased to +/- 10%.
· That the reduction of the number of parliamentary constituencies to 600 not go ahead.
In order to enable these changes to be made before the next boundary review commences, we recommend that the next Government make a statement no later than June 2015 on its policy on the rules for the distribution of parliamentary constituencies. This statement should respond to the recommendations we have set out in this report. The Government should in July 2015 publish a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny and introduce a Bill in the autumn of 2015 to receive Royal Assent by early 2016.
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