Parliamentary Constituencies Act passed into law

The Parliamentary Constituencies Act has received Royal Assent, which means the geographical boundaries of the UK’s 650 constituencies will be redrawn to each contain a near equal number of eligible voters.

The updated constituencies will reflect significant changes in demographics, house building and migration - the current ones having been defined using outdated data from two decades ago. The government says that this means every vote cast in a general election will carry equal weight.

Starting their review in January 2021, the Boundary Commissions will use the most up-to-date data on the current UK electorate available, to determine the average number of electors that will be in each constituency and their new boundaries.

The government’s new legislation will strengthen the independence of the process further, ensuring reviews take place every eight years and the subsequent proposals are implemented automatically. This will stop any potential for political interference or further delays to updating constituencies, protecting fair representation of the British people for the future.

Constitution Minister Chloe Smith said: “Every voter deserves to have confidence that their vote counts the same, no matter where it is cast. This assurance is long overdue and today’s Act delivers exactly that. Up-to-date, more equally sized constituencies is a sensible policy that will make our elections fairer, ensuring that people from all four nations of the UK have equal representation in Parliament.”