Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

It is reasonable to argue that, with movements in population, the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies should be kept under review to ensure that historic figures do not operate unfairly (by making some constituencies much larger or smaller than the average.)

The process of Boundary Review is undertaken by 4 Boundary Commissions – one each for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The 7th Boundary Review has just been completed. The reports from the Commissions were handed to Government on 5 September 2018, and they in turn were laid before Parliament on 10 September 2018.

The 7th review is the first to have been completed following major amendments to the primary legislation – the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, as significantly amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011.

The Act of 2011 was a product of the Conservative/Liberal Democratic Coalition and was designed to to two things.

1. Authorise the holding of a referendum on whether some form of proportional voting should replace the current ‘first past the post’ system of voting in UK General Elections – a proposition that was lost in May 2011.
2. Reduce the total size of the House of Commons from 650 to 600. The amending act set out in some detail the criteria to be used by the Boundary Commissions in reaching their decisions. An important issue was try to ensure that the numbers of voters entitled to vote in each constituency should be more equal than had been the case hitherto. There was to be a uniform electoral quota (number of voters divided by the number of seats) and, with only limited exceptions, each constituency deviating by no more than 5% from that number.

(The 6th boundary review, which was supposed to have developed recommendations to deliver the boundary changes in time for the 2015 General Election).

There are two principal reasons why these particular boundary changes are controversial.

• Many sitting MPs are faced with the prospect of their seat disappearing; in order to seek relection, they will have to be adopted as a candidate in a new constituency;
• Historically, urban constituencies  have on average had fewer constituents that rural constituencies. Since rural constituencies have tended to be more Conservative than urban constituencies, it has generally been possible for those in urban seats to be elected with somewhat fewer votes than those in  rural seats.

The recommendations of the Boundary Commissions cannot come into effect without a detailed Order in Council incorporating the changes has been laid before and approved by Parliament. It has been stated by a junior Minister that the process of drafting the order may take some time.

It is currently far from clear whether the changes – and the consequent reduction in the size of the House of Commons – will be made. If they are, they will come into effect for the next General Election, currently scheduled for 2022.

The full reports of the Commissions can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-boundary-commissions-boundary-review-2018. (These give details of how the constituencies in your area might be affected.)

A very helpful background note can be found at https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/parliament-and-elections/government/the-boundary-review-what-comes-next/