Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Barwell Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2011 Commons Chamber

The Deputy Prime Minister was asked—

[Gavin Barwell (Croydon Central) (Con)]

1. What recent representations he has received on his proposals to create fewer and more equally sized constituencies.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Harper)]

The last representation that I received on this matter was from Parliament, to say that the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 received Royal Assent on 16 February, and I am sure that many Members of this House and the other place were grateful that it did.

[Gavin Barwell]

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics last Wednesday showed that on 1 December the Wirral—represented in this House by four Members of Parliament—had 239,000 electors, whereas my borough of Croydon, with just three MPs, had 243,000 electors. Can my hon. Friend tell me when the boundary commissions will publish their draft proposals to deal with this shocking injustice?

[Mr Harper]

My hon. Friend puts his finger on exactly why it was necessary to have more equally sized constituencies across the country, so that voters will have equal weight when they cast their votes. He will know that the boundary commissions have to report finally to Ministers by 1 October 2013. We expect that they will set out their initial proposals some time this year, but that is a matter for the independent boundary commissions.