19 Nov 2009
The Electoral Commission, the independent elections watchdog, has welcomed Royal Assent being given to the new Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.
The new legislation transfers responsibility for setting local government boundaries from the Electoral Commission and the Boundary Committee for England to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE), which is scheduled to begin work on 1 April 2010.
Jenny Watson, Chair of the Electoral Commission, said: “This new Act will allow the Commission in future to focus solely on the important job of regulating party finance and setting standards for well-run elections. We backed this move when it was first recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in 2007.”
Max Caller, Chair of the Boundary Committee and Electoral Commissioner, said: “The new Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s job will be to keep the map of local government in England in good repair. Having fair local electoral arrangements is important to ensure that every voter, wherever they live in a council area, has a vote of similar weight in electing their representatives.”
“We estimate that, by 2014, a quarter of all English local authorities will have imbalances between wards that meet the Electoral Commission’s current criteria for electoral reviews. We also know from talking to councils that there is a demand out there for reviews to look at the external boundaries of authorities, something that hasn’t been done since the early 1990s. Our job over the next few months will be to make sure the new body is set up to meet these challenges and to develop a work programme that prioritises reviews where they are needed most.”
The new body will retain the Boundary Committee for England’s independence from Government and, like the Electoral Commission, will report to the Speaker’s Committee in Parliament.
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For further information contact:
Electoral Commission Press Office on 0207 271 0704
press@electoralcommission.org.uk
outside office hours: 07789 920414
Notes to editors:
1. The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. The Boundary Committee for England is a statutory body of the Commission. The Committee’s aim is to conduct thorough, consultative and robust reviews of local government areas in England, and for its recommendations to be evidence-based, accurate and accepted.
2. Provisions providing for the creation of a Local Government Boundary Commission for England are contained in the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009. The Boundary Committee for England would cease to exist on the vesting day of the new body.
3. Transitional provisions contained in the Act provide that, between now and the date of the LGBCE’s establishment (planned for 1 April 2010), virtually all of the Electoral Commission’s boundary-related functions will vest in the Boundary Committee for England.
4. The Electoral Commission’s current criteria used for establishing whether a local authority qualifies for an investigation into whether an electoral review is necessary are: a) 30% of the local authority’s wards/divisions having electoral variances over 10% from the average for the authority; or b) any one ward/division having an electoral variance of more than 30% from the average for the authority.
