Friday, 12 June 2020

Parliamentary Boundary Review Update

For the past eight years or so successive governments have opened reviews into parliamentary boundaries with the stated objective of 'levelling up' the number of voters in each parliamentary constituency and in the process reducing the number of MPs from 650 to 600.

Over the years there have been potential impacts of the review on the villages in the Blackhall Division, and at each opportunity we've registered our concerns with the Boundary Commission for England (BCE) that any attempt to remove our villages from the Easington constituency into a new, revised Hartlepool constituency would be resisted (please see posts dated Monday 10 September 2018 and Friday 8 December 2017 for background details and links to other related posts on this site. Alternatively simply type 'boundary review' into the search bar in the top left of this page).

However it has recently come to light that the current government appears intent on dropping the requirement to implement the recommendations included in the 2018 BCE report which would have relocated our villages into the Hartlepool constituency. The following passage has been taken from the BCE's website with reference to the publication of a Parliamentary Constituency Bill:

Following its earlier policy statement, the Government has now laid before Parliament a Parliamentary Constituencies Bill, to make provision for future constituency reviews (as well as removing the current requirement on the Government to implement the recommendations of the 2018 Review).

The text of the Bill and associated documents can be viewed on the dedicated page for the Bill on the Parliament website where you can also track the Parliamentary progress of the Bill. 

I'll follow progress of the Bill through parliament and report on any significant developments that might have an impact on our villages. In the meantime full details of the government's and the BCE's respective roles in this process can be found on the BCE website at: