Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will provide a relevant hyperlink to the guidance from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England that councils are expected to follow when submitting proposals for new boundaries and warding; and whether it is the policy of the Secretary of State to have regard to that guidance when determining proposals from local authorities for new shadow unitary structures, prior to any post-implementation review by the Commission.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England provides guidance to councils undergoing reorganisation on boundaries and warding, which is accessible on their website under the Online Resources section here.

In formulating proposals for councillor numbers of new unitary authorities, councils were asked by government to have regard to Local Government Boundary Commission for England guidance when developing proposals.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England has wide-ranging experience of recommending local boundary arrangements, as well as their published guidance and can support councils in relation to local government reorganisation. There are two main areas where they have offered to assist councils in developing proposals for submission to the Secretary of State and ultimately inclusion in the structural change order: identifying the number of councillors to be elected to a new authority and, subsequently, developing interim warding arrangements to enable the new authority to run its elections. Once new unitary authorities exist in law, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (the Commission) is then able to carry out an electoral review of the new authority. Ministers will have regard to all information available to them, when reaching a decision on which proposal, if any, to implement.