Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, this amendment, put down by my noble friend Lord Foulkes of Cumnock, proposes that: "““The Boundary Commission for Scotland may take into account the boundaries of constituencies of the Scottish Parliament””." Three specific points emerge from this amendment. First, it is worth while to look at the experience of the Boundary Commission for Scotland in dealing with the drawing of the boundaries for the Scottish Parliament. The experience of those involved in public inquiries was that the rules were ““too rigid””. The rules, although much more rigid than previously, are less rigid than the current rules. Sheriff Principal Kerr, who conducted a public inquiry into the West of Scotland constituencies, said that the Act, "““introduced a rigidity which had not previously existed””," and, in the foreword to his report, said: "““Too little attention has been paid in my view to local authority boundaries, to geographical considerations, to inconveniences resulting from proposed constituency changes and to the sundering of local ties; and too much emphasis has been laid on the requirement (although qualified by the other rules)—" which is not the position here— "““of Rule 2 that numerical proximity to the electoral quota be achieved. This consequence””," the Sheriff Principal said, "““came out very clearly in the present inquiry and it is I think necessary to remedy it so far as reasonable, at least for the West of Scotland, in order to avoid the continuance of a sense of grievance which appears to be widely or even universally felt in some quarters””." Point number one: the effect of too rigid rules is, in the view of Sheriff Principal Kerr, to create a sense of grievance. Point two is that public inquiries were very important in dealing with it. There were, in the wake of the drawing of the boundaries for the Scottish Parliament, 10 major public inquiries relating to the constituencies. That is in the context of the paramount importance, although not quite to the extent in this Bill, of the electoral quota. Very significant changes, which came about because of those 10 public inquiries, were made to the initial proposals made by the Boundary Commission. Those public inquiries constituted both a safety valve and a means of looking at the specific problems that arose. I suspect that they would not have emerged if there had not been a judicial figure, such as Sheriff Principal Kerr in the West of Scotland, to deal with and listen to submissions. The third point is, in a sense, specifically raised by the amendment: "““The Boundary Commission … may take into account the boundaries of constituencies of the Scottish Parliament””." It seems to me that, when drawing the boundaries of the parliamentary constituencies, it would be sensible for the Boundary Commission for Scotland to have regard to where the boundaries are in relation to the MSPs’ constituencies. They cannot be coterminous because, as my noble friend Lord Foulkes has pointed out, there are 59 parliamentary constituencies and—I cannot remember what the number is in relation to first past the post.