§ 4.51 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT COLVILLE OF CULROSS rose to move, That the Draft Parliamentary Constituencies (New Forest and Christchurch and Lymington) Order 1973, laid before the House on January 24 be approved. The noble Viscount said: My Lords, I shall not fall into the trap that beset my noble friend Lord Windlesham and try to move these Orders en bloc. What I would ask is that I may be allowed to speak to them together and then move them separately. I hope your Lordships do not think that this is a great redistribution issue: rather it is a matter of some fine tuning as a result of small changes. The Report of the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for England, following their last general review, was dated April, 1969, and although the Order giving effect to these recommendations was not approved by this House until October 29, 1970 (I seem to remember just a mite of political controversy about that) it had to define constituencies by reference to local government areas as they were on January 1, 1969. Thus the Order that was eventually made was in that respect some 18 months out of date even when 49 it was made. The Boundary Commission's interim review report of October 1, 1971, recommended changes in 25 constituencies to bring their boundaries up to date, and the Order for that purpose was approved by this House in November, 1971. That was fairly quickly after the Report.
§ The latest interim review report by the Boundary Commission was submitted on December 8 last, and recommends changes in 17 Parliamentary constituencies—which one can work out in the Schedules to the five Orders we have here—to take account of further alterations to local government boundaries or ward boundaries made in 1971. The changes are minor: there are only 6,716 electors affected—or there were at that time anyway. In 11 of the constituencies the changes follow new borough ward boundaries. In these and in a further two constituencies—making up 13 of the 17—there were no objections when published, but there are four constituencies where there was an objection; that is, the Northamptonshire group. The Northampton County Borough Council said that the two borough constituencies should be constituted so as to include the whole of the area of Northampton New Town instead of only those parts of the New Town area which had already been transferred to the county borough. There was a local inquiry as required and the Assistant Commissioner thought that if the Commission were free to do so, they should anticipate the whole of the New Town area becoming a district under local government reorganisation. But the Commission concluded that they were not free to do so; they could not depart from the rules requiring observance of existing local government boundaries. They noted also that the new district wards were to be reviewed after the district elections this year and might then conflict with the new constituency boundaries they were invited to consider. So they recommended the adoption of their original proposals and the draft Order gives effect to that recommendation.
§ I believe that the Commission were right to do this and not to anticipate local government reorganisation or, indeed, to distinguish Northampton from all the other areas where one might try to get in on the new district and county boundaries. They concluded that all these 50 changes should wait until the next general review. The statutory position is that for the next general review they must report between 1979 and 1983, and I do not doubt that they will make it as near 1979 as they possibly can. Indeed, even if they were permitted to do so, they could hardly report earlier, because they will need to take account, wherever possible, of the initial warding review which is going to be done by the Local Government Boundary Commission and which will determine the ward pattern on which many constituency boundaries will he based. Inevitably that next general review will involve another major redistribution, affecting every county and most constituencies. I do not think that it would make sense to try to adjust individual constituencies before then, since any interim adjustment would be bound to some extent to prejudice the general review. So if these Orders are approved, the Commission will be able to start their review with all constituencies defined in terms of local boundaries as they are now—that will be across the country—and their task will be to adjust them to the new county and district boundaries which will arise on April 1, 1974.
§ My Lords, that is the justification for all the draft Orders. There is nothing particularly contentious on the first one; it was only the Northampton group that was contentious at all. Therefore, I beg to move that the first Order be approved.
§ Moved, That the Draft Parliamentary Constituencies (New Forest and Christchurch and Lymington) Order 1973, laid before the House on January 24, be approved.—(Viscount Colville of Culross.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.