Maria Miller MP who is on the House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill 2019-21 has been part of a three-week scrutiny of the Government’s reform proposals.
The main measures in the Bill are to equalise the size of constituencies and to ensure the Boundary Commission proposals are automatically adopted once they are finalised.
Maria said, “It was a manifesto pledge by the Government to equalise the size of Parliamentary constituencies, so that everyone’s vote, regardless of where they live, is of the same value. At the moment constituencies vary in size by considerable amounts. Basingstoke constituency is 50% bigger than some of the more rural seats in places like Wales.
Whilst there are some important exceptions, this Bill will make it the law to keep constituencies the same size and that those boundaries are updated regularly without any outside interference. At the moment the boundaries that are in place are based on population data from 20 years ago. Towns like Basingstoke have grown considerably over that time and those changes need to be properly taken into account.”
Further information is available at https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2019-21/parliamentaryconstituencies.html
