This coming Tuesday, 8th November, the Boundary Commission will be releasing their revised proposals for two Parliamentary Constituencies on the Island – East Isle of Wight and West Isle of Wight.
These proposals will be subject to a four-week public consultation (as legislation requires) which runs from 8th November to 5th December 2022.
The final consultation
This will be the final consultation on the Boundary Review and those involved stress how important it is for residents to look at how the initial proposals have changed.
They’re keen to hear from you whether you think the changes are good or bad. Details of how you can feed this information back to them will be included in News OnTheWight’s article next week.
Not the same as the 2018 Review
Although it may feel as though these proposals have been rolling on for years, it’s worth noting that the 2018 Review was never implemented due to changes in the 2020 Parliamentary Constituencies Act.
The process for this latest review began in June 2021 and should see the final recommendations go before the Speaker of the House in July 2023.
Why the Review?
The purpose of the Review is to equalise the number of electors in each of the 650 Parliamentary constituencies across the UK.
Apart from the two new Isle of Wight constituencies, which are protected by law, all other constituencies must have no less than 69,724 electors and no more than 77,062 electors.
What comes up?
During the previous consultation, the types of views expressed by electors around the UK included concerns about local community ties and whether those would be broken by the proposed boundary changes.
Information about where people shop, live, go to school, work etc came up, along with consideration of transport links, motorways etc.
Areas around the UK where contentious changes are being proposed have been visited by the Boundary Commission (BC) team. For this final consultation there will be no public hearings.
The process
The responses from this final consultation will be analysed and assessed by the BC team, with final recommendations going to the Speaker of the House at the end of June 2023.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is then responsible for bringing forward an Order for the recommendations. This has to be done within four months.
Once the Order is brought forward, it will go straight to the Privy Council to be signed. Once signed, the new boundaries will come into effect.
What happens is there’s an early election?
If a General Election is called before that point, the current boundaries would be used.
Look out on Tuesday for News OnTheWight’s article about the final proposals for the two Isle of Wight Parliamentary constituencies, which should be in place by late 2023.
To find out more about the history of the Boundary Review, see News OnTheWight’s archives.
Image: Shows previous proposals
