Parliamentary Constituencies (England) (Amendment) Order 2009

The purpose of this draft order is to implement without modification the recommendations of the Boundary Commission for England to make alterations to the boundaries between the parliamentary constituencies of Daventry and South Northamptonshire in Northamptonshire; and Somerton and Frome, and Wells in Somerset. I hope that the Committee will consider that this is an uncontroversial draft order, but I have a feeling that my hope may not be realised completely. The Boundary Commission for England has observed its customary rigorous and non-partisan procedures in producing its report, including wide consultation. Although there has been some opposition to the proposals in Somerset, everyone concerned has had an opportunity to put their arguments, which have, I understand, been carefully considered by the commission. I appreciate that there may be some interest from those affected—the electors concerned as well as Members of this Committee and of the other place who represent these areas. However, I hope we can all agree that the commission has, as usual, done its work very thoroughly and that we can approve this draft order. I shall provide some background to the commission’s report and the order. Thanks are due to the Boundary Commission for England and its secretariat for its assiduous work in carrying out this review. As always, it has carried out its duties thoroughly and conscientiously. I take this opportunity to thank the deputy chair of the commission at the time, the honourable Mr Justice Sullivan, for overseeing this work. He is no longer the deputy chair, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal, so he is now Lord Justice Sullivan. I am grateful, as I am sure are all Members, for his work with the commission over many years. The Boundary Commission is a body appointed by statute to review parliamentary constituency boundaries in England. As well as carrying out regular reviews on all parliamentary constituencies approximately every 10 years or so, if it thinks it necessary between those reviews, the commission can carry out interim reviews of boundaries in a particular area. These might be necessary as a result of other changes, for instance to local authority boundaries or perhaps if there are major population changes in an area. The report and the draft order are the result of local authority boundary changes. The previous regular periodical review in England was completed by the commission in October 2006. Its report was implemented without modification in the Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 2007, which sets out the parliamentary constituencies into which England is divided. The parliamentary constituencies are described by reference to local government areas as they existed on 12 April 2005 and, of course, the new parliamentary constituencies will come into effect at the next general election. After the commission’s report was submitted, the Electoral Commission made orders in 2006 and 2007 which altered the local government ward boundaries in the district of South Northamptonshire and in the district of Mendip in Somerset. Because those orders came into effect some months after the commission had submitted its previous periodical report to the Secretary of State, the boundary changes were not reflected in the 2007 order. As a result, the boundaries between the parliamentary constituencies of Daventry and South Northamptonshire, and those between Somerton and Frome, and Wells do not follow the new local authority ward boundaries. The Boundary Commission for England, therefore, considered whether it should carry out another interim review of the relevant areas and other areas in a similar situation. It concluded that it should carry out a review, but decided to postpone its reviews of the other areas because of local government reorganisations. No doubt the commission will return to those areas in due course. The commission began the process in the usual way, announcing the commencement of the review in June 2007, collecting data and considering the evidence. It produced provisional recommendations in July 2007, published them widely and invited representations from interested parties. It made the recommendations available for inspection locally and on its website. The provisional recommendations propose that only the minimum changes necessary should be made to bring the boundaries between the parliamentary constituencies of Daventry and South Northamptonshire and those of Somerton and Frome, and Wells back into alignment with the new local authority ward boundaries. That will involve a relatively small change on the map and relatively few electors. Sixteen written representations were received in respect of proposals for the Northamptonshire constituencies, of which 13 were objections; and five in respect of the Somerset constituencies, of which four were objections. The commission therefore decided to hold local public inquiries in both areas to allow those making representations, and others, an opportunity to make their case in person. As a result of those public inquiries, the commission made revised proposals in both areas. Further written representations were received in respect of both areas, but after considering those and all the other evidence, I understand that the commission decided to make no further changes to its proposals. It made its report to the Secretary of State on 25 July 2008. The Secretary of State is required by statute to lay the commission's report before Parliament, along with the draft order implementing the recommendations, ""as soon as may be"," after receiving the report. After arranging for publication of the report and preparing to seek legal approval of the instrument implementing the report's recommendations, the report and the draft order were laid in January this year. The draft order is uncomplicated and, as I said, includes without modification the recommendations contained in the Boundary Commission’s report by amending the 2007 order to realign the parliamentary constituency boundaries with the altered ward boundaries. That means that the parliamentary constituencies will reflect the new local authority ward boundaries introduced in the Electoral Commission orders made in 2006 and 2007. If the House should see fit to approve the draft order and those in the other place do the same, it will be submitted in the normal way to the Privy Council for approval before it comes into force. I remind the Committee that should the draft order be approved, it will have no practical effect until the next general parliamentary election. Any parliamentary by-elections that may occur in the areas affected before then will of course take place on the existing boundaries. I trust that that explains in sufficient depth what the order is about and why the draft order should be approved.