HC Deb 09 March 2004 vol 418 cc1418-9W
Dr. Whitehead

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will list the 20 constituencies in which the highest number of electors have been lost from the parliamentary register between 2000 and 2004. [158959]

Ruth Kelly

I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Dr. Alan Whitehead, dated 9 March 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning the 20 constituencies with the highest loss of electorate between 2000 and 2004. (158959)

A table showing the total and percentage change of the 20 parliamentary constituencies with the greatest fall in number of registered electors over the period 16 February 2001 to 1 December 2003 (or to 2 February 2004 for Northern Ireland) is shown. The Office for National Statistics did not publish electoral data for parliamentary constituencies for 2000 and therefore the 2001 figures have been used. 2004 data are not available (except for Northern Ireland) therefore the most recent data available, 1 December 2003, have been used.

It should be noted that these figures represent the number of 'registered' electors. In many cases, especially in Northern Ireland, large decreases may be due to 'cleaning' of the registers rather than actual falls in the number of electors. In the case of Northern Ireland, the Electoral Commission carried out a review of the

Parliamentary constituencies with the 20 largest falls in the numbers of registered electors between 2001 and 20031, ranked by size of absolute change
Constituency Electors 1 February 2001 Electors 1 December 2003 Absolute change Percentage change
1 Brentford and Isleworth 83,420 67,934 -15,486 -18.6
2 Belfast West 60,377 47,139 -13,238 -21.9
3 Belfast North 61,646 49,054 -12,592 -20.4
4 Portsmouth South 77,372 66,162 -11,210 -14.5
5 Belfast South 59,937 49,207 -10,730 -17.9
6 Edinburgh Central 66,296 55,714 -10,582 -16.0
7 Foyle 71,835 62,321 -9,514 -13.2
8 Belfast East 59,044 49,930 -9,114 -15.4
9 South Antrim 71,316 62,906 -8,410 -11.8
10 Strangford 72,948 64,718 -8,230 -11.3
11 Lagan Valley 73,494 65,545 -7,949 -10.8
12 North Down 63,944 56,030 -7,914 -12.4
13 Rhondda 56,096 48,332 -7,764 -13.8
14 Glasgow Maryhill 55,087 47.525 -7,562 -13.7
15 Bradford West 72,193 64,663 -7,530 -10.4
16 Edinburgh South 64,437 57,274 -7,163 -11.1
17 Brent East 58,082 51,114 -6,968 -12.0
18 East Antrim 61,597 54,644 -6,953 -11.3
19 Bolton South East 68,080 61,198 -6,882 -10.1
20 Dulwich and West Norwood 70,301 63,489 -6,812 -9.7
1 2 February 2004 for Northern Ireland
Source:
Office for National Statistics