REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE (Hansard, 17 February 1960)

§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Dennis Vosper)
I beg to move, That the Parliamentary Constituencies (Coventry and Mid-Warwickshire) Order, 1959, a draft of which was laid before this House on 27th July, 1959, in the last Parliament, be approved. This and the subsequent 13 Orders give effect, without modification, to the recommendations made by the Boundary Commission for England in its Report submitted to the Secretary of State on 20th July, 1959. The next three Orders give effect to the recommendations in the Report submitted on 1st January, 1960.
These Orders are submitted under Section 2 (3) of the House of Commons Redistribution Act, 1949, and are made in pursuance of subsection (5) of that Section. This and the subsequent Orders all make minor adjustments to constituency boundaries to conform with recent alterations of local government boundaries. They thus resemble a series of previous Orders approved by Parliament. As required by the principal Act, the proposed recommendations were published in at least one newspaper circulating in each constituency and facilities were afforded to those who wished to do so to submit recommendations about the proposals.
The Orders will not affect any Parliamentary election until the next General Election after they come into force. I shall be very glad to answer any questions on this or the subsequent Orders if hon. Members are interested.

§ Mr. James H. Hoy (Edinburgh, Leith)
On a point of order. Are we discussing simply the first Order, Mr. Speaker, or are we taking them all together?

§ Mr. Speaker
I understood that it would be for the convenience of the House if, the Minister having made his general observations on the first Order, all the English ones were then put in succession, and perhaps a Scottish Minister might deal in parallel fashion with the Scottish series, if that be convenient. The present position is that the Minister has proposed the first Order only. I shall have to put the Question on each Order separately.

§ Mr. Hoy
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I merely wanted to make sure that we would have an explanation from the Scottish Office about how the Scottish constituencies concerned would be affected.

§ Mr. Speaker
When we reach that point, I will allow an opportunity for that to occur.

§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Niall Macpherson)
I beg to move, That the Parliamentary Constituencies (Scotland) (West Fife and Dunfermline Burghs) Order, 1960, a draft of which was laid before this House on 9th February, be approved. This Order and the following two Orders, concerning West Renfrewshire and Greenock and Midlothian and Edinburgh, are laid before the House under Section 2 (5) of the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act, 1949. They conform with the recommendations contained in the report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland submitted to the Secretary of State on 9th January, 1960 (Command 73).
As the Report stated, the alterations proposed are in conformity with the provisions of Rule 4 (1) (b) of the Second Schedule to the 1949 Act which states: in Scotland, no burgh other than a county of a city shall be included partly in one constituency and partly in another".

§ Mr. James H. Hoy (Edinburgh, Leith)
I have only one thing to say. Any alteration in boundaries is important, although, perhaps these alterations are not quite as important as other alterations which have taken place. It might not be a bad thing for the Scottish Office to tell the people of Scotland who constitutes the Boundary Commission. This is exceedingly important. I do not know whether the Joint Under-Secretary can give this information, but boundaries are important to any parliamentary constituency. If suggestions are to be made concerning alterations in the boundaries, at least the people of Scotland should know who makes the recommendations. I should have thought that on an occasion like this the Joint Under-Secretary 1311 might have been able to tell us who the people were.

§ Mr. N. Macpherson
The Chairman of the Boundary Commission is, of course, Mr. Speaker. The Vice-Chairman, who, under the terms of the 1958 Act, must be a judge, is Lord Guest. I am not at the moment in a position to give the other names, but the hon. Member will be aware that there are two assessors, one of whom is the Registrar-General and the other the Director of Ordinance, who are able to speak on their particular subjects.

§ Mr. Hoy
What steps do they take to inform people in the constituencies that these alterations are to be made and what steps are open to the people to raise objections? How do the electors within these constituencies object to any alterations which might take place?

§ Mr. Macpherson
This is all controlled by the 1949 and 1958 Acts. It is all fully reported in the Report of the Boundary Commission for Scotland, which is laid before the House and to which I have referred. By the terms of the Act, notice must first be given by the Secretary of State that a report is to be made. Then, the report is published in the Edinburgh Gazette and opportunities are given for representations to be received. No representations have been received in respect of any of these Orders.

§ Miss Margaret Herbison (Lanarkshire, North)
I am sure that if the Joint Under-Secretary is unable to give the House the names of the members of the Commission on this occasion, he will let us have them in due course.