To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission for what reasons the Boundary Committee for England did not select the East Suffolk/West Suffolk/Ipswich pattern as a formal option for consultation in its structural review of Suffolk local government. (275212)

The Electoral Commission informs me that the Boundary Committee considered that an East Suffolk/West Suffolk/Ipswich pattern would, on the basis of the information before it, be unlikely to have the capacity to deliver the outcomes specified by the Secretary of State's five criteria.

To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission for what reasons the Boundary Committee for England's March 2009 consultation on preferred patterns for the future of local government in Suffolk proposed an additional public service village in Stowmarket in the rural authority in the pattern B option; and for what reasons such a village was not proposed in the pattern A option. (275220)

The Electoral Commission informs me that in its further draft proposal report the Boundary Committee outlined potential arrangements to deliver the outcomes specified by the Secretary of State's five criteria.

One of these arrangements is for a pattern of “service delivery villages”. These are centres typically providing shared local offices for public sector service providers, intended to encourage shared solutions to local problems. In pattern A, which is a unitary county authority, the committee proposed locating the public service villages in the three largest towns: Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds and Lowestoft. In pattern B, the committee requested views on whether the town of Stowmarket would be an appropriate location for a public service village, serving residents living in the centre of Suffolk, bearing in mind that Ipswich would be included in a separate unitary authority.

To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission whether the Boundary Committee for England has determined Lowestoft to be (a) an urban area and (b) a market town. (275239)

The Electoral Commission informs me that its Boundary Committee has not determined Lowestoft to be either an urban area or a market town for the purposes of its further draft proposals for unitary local government in Suffolk. It is not the committee's remit to decide how an area should be defined.