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Boundary Commissions

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

28. To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission what the time scale is for the assumption of responsibility by the Electoral Commission of the work of the parliamentary boundary commissions. (124558)

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 makes provision for the transfer of the responsibilities of the four parliamentary boundary commissions to the Electoral Commission. On 22 May 2006, Official Report, column 1472W, the Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs the hon. Member for Lewisham, East (Bridget Prentice) stated that the Government wished to take into account the findings of the review of the Electoral Commission by the Committee on Standards in Public Life before reaching a decision on the timing of any such transfers. That Committee reported in January and has recommended that the relevant statutory provisions should be repealed. The Government have yet to respond formally to this report.