§ 9.4 p.m.
§ Lord BeaverbrookMy Lords, I beg to move that the draft Parliamentary Constituencies (England) (Miscellaneous Changes) Order 1987, which was laid before the House on 23rd February 1987, be approved. The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments has considered the draft order and made no adverse comment.
The Parliamentary Boundary Commissions have the statutory duty to keep the distribution of parliamentary seats under review. They are required to complete reviews of the whole country every 10 to 15 years, and the last of these was completed in 1983. Since 1983 there have been changes in some local authority boundaries which have meant that local boundaries no longer coincided with parliamentary constituency boundaries. This can cause inconvenience and confusion to electors, returning officers and political organisations.
The Parliamentary Boundary Commission for England is therefore carrying out a series of interim reviews of constituencies, of which this is the third to be completed since 1983. The commission originally announced an interim review of 42 constituencies in February 1986. There are however only 40 constituencies in the draft order before your Lordships tonight. That is because two of the original 42 constituencies, Reading East and Wokingham, were the subject of a considerable number of representations and a public inquiry was held into the commission's proposals for those two constituencies in February 1987. The commission will be making a separate report on those constituencies in due course.
All the changes proposed in this draft order are the minimum necessary to achieve the re-alignment of the local authority boundaries. The largest number of electors affected are 3,997 who will be moved from Horsham to Crawley. Other substantial changes are the movement of 1,924 electors from Warrington South to Halton, and 1,312 from Arundel to Shoreham. The remaining changes affect from one to 400 electors; some do not affect any electors.
The form of the draft order before your Lordships' House is similar to the other interim review draft orders considered in the past year. Articles 2 to 12 substitute the constituencies in the schedule for the existing constituencies created by the Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1983. Article 5(5) provides for the order to come into force 14 days after it is made by Her Majesty in Council, and for the new boundaries to take effect whenever a general election is 1400 called. Any by-election held in the meantime will be held on the existing boundaries.
I invite your Lordships to approve this draft order for implementing the Commission's proposals in full. My Lords, I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 23rd February be approved. [14th Report from the Joint Committee.]—(Lord Beaverbrook).
§ Lord UnderhillMy Lords, as in a previous debate when we were discussing the question of the compilation of registers, we obviously cannot let this order pass on the nod. I am happy to say that having read both the order and the boundary commission report, and having heard what the Minister has said I am happy to ask the House to support the order. As the Minister rightly said, all the changes are due to local government action. In one case there were two objections from two Labour parties which were subsequently withdrawn. Therefore, there remain no objections whatever to the order.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.