Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Tuesday 8th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

There has been no shortage of ministerial visits to Liverpool in recent days. I pay tribute to the mayor and the authorities across the north-west for the international festival of business in Liverpool, which has been a huge success and drawn people from around the world. We were delighted in the Liverpool growth deal to confirm that the second such festival will take place in two years.

[Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

5. What plans he has to discuss constituency boundaries with the Boundary Commission; and if he will make a statement.

[The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Nick Clegg)]

Ministers do not generally meet the independent boundary commissioners to discuss the setting of parliamentary constituency boundaries, and I currently have no plans to meet them.

[Mr Bellingham]

I am grateful to the Deputy Prime Minister for that reply, but does he agree that there is a serious, pressing need for fewer MPs, sitting for constituencies with fairer, more equitable boundaries? Will he in future push for that reform as hard as possible?

[The Deputy Prime Minister]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, the legislation on the statute book will lead to a further review in the next Parliament, ahead of the 2020 general election, and it sets out the basis on which those decisions are made. There is an interesting discussion, not least in the academic survey published recently— just last week, I think—about precisely how such a review will be conducted in future so that communities are not split up and the integrity of wards is maintained.