2021 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies

The 2021 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies is the current process in the United Kingdom to redraw the United Kingdom House of Commons constituency map following the 2019 United Kingdom general election. Under current United Kingdom legislation the four Boundary Commissions of the United Kingdom are required to report on their next review of the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies by October 2023. In order to meet this deadline, the Commissions would currently have to begin their review in early 2021. This process is the successor to the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies which ended in 'limbo' as two successive proposals by the Commissions failed to pass into UK legislation.

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The Government's current policy position regarding the process for the 2021 review was confirmed in a written statement by Minister of State for the Cabinet Office Chloe Smith on 24 March 2020.[1]

Previous review

The Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was launched by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011. The process began in 2011 and was intended to be completed by 2013, but a January 2013 vote in the House of Commons temporarily stopped the process. The four Boundary Commissions submitted their Final Recommendations to the Secretary of State on 5 September 2018,[2][3] and made their reports public a week later.[4][5][6][7] Leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom told the House on 13 September 2018 that "it will be some time" before the necessary Statutory Instruments can be put forward for approval by both the Commons and the Lords.[8] The proposals were not put forward for approval prior to the calling of the general election held on 12 December 2019 and are currently in "limbo".

Current position

Chloe Smith confirmed in her written statement that primary legislation would be brought forward to remove the legal requirement to give effect to the recommendations of the Sixth Review and set the framework for future boundary reviews. The current suggestions for this are summarised below.

Maintaining 650 seats

Under the current legislation which governed the unimplemented 2018 Boundary Review recommendations, the number of constituencies was reduced from 650 to 600. It is now proposed that this is retained at 650 on the basis that Parliament will have a greater workload now that the United Kingdom has left the European Union.[9]

Protected constituencies

The current proposal mandates that five protected constituencies be created:

Electoral quota tolerance

It is proposed to maintain the current tolerance of +/- 5% from the average size of constituencies (the "electoral quota").

Boundary review cycle

It is proposed that reviews are carried out every eight years, rather than current requirement of five years.

Implementation of recommendations

Currently the final proposals of the Boundary Commissions are brought into effect through an Order in Council that must be approved in the affirmative by Parliament. In future, it is proposed that the Order in Council is automatically passed.

Legislation

In May 2020 the Government published the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill which outlines the amended regulations underpinning the upcoming boundary review process, including amendments to the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, Northern Ireland Act 1998, Boundary Commissions Act 1992, and Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011.[11]

References
  1. Smith, Chloe (20 March 2020). "Update: Strengthening Democracy:Written statement - HCWS183". Parliament.uk. Parliament.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2020.
  2. "2018 Review". Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  3. "Towards final recommendations (and beyond)". Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  4. "2018 Review". Boundary Commission for England. Boundary Commission for England. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  5. "2018 Review of Westminster Constituencies". Boundary Commission for Scotland. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  6. "2018 Review of Parliamentary constituencies". Boundary Commission for Wales. Archived from the original on 18 October 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  7. "2018 Review". Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. 16 February 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  8. Business of the House - Hansard hansard.parliament.uk
  9. Proctor, Kate (26 March 2020). "MPs no longer to get automatic vote on constituency boundary plans" – via www.theguardian.com.
  10. Wells, Ione (30 June 2020). "Ynys Môn constituency 'protected' from cut in number of MPs". BBC News. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  11. "Parliamentary Constituencies Bill" (PDF). parliament.uk. 19 May 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
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