Initial proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in London Contents Summary 3 1 What is the Boundary Commission for England? 5 2 Background to the 2018 Review 7 3 Initial proposals for London 11 Initial proposals for the North Thames sub-region 12 Initial proposals for the South Thames sub-region 17 4 How to have your say 21 Annex A: Initial proposals for constituencies, 25 including wards and electorates Glossary 38 Initial proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in London 1 Summary Who we are and what we do What is changing in London? The Boundary Commission for England The London region has been allocated 68 is an independent and impartial constituencies – a reduction of five from non-departmental public body which is the current number. responsible for reviewing Parliamentary constituency boundaries in England. Our proposals leave four of the 73 existing constituencies unchanged. The 2018 Review As it has not always been possible to We have the task of periodically reviewing allocate whole numbers of constituencies the boundaries of all the Parliamentary to individual London boroughs, we have constituencies in England. We are currently grouped them into sub-regions. The conducting a review on the basis of rules number of constituencies allocated to each set by Parliament in 2011. The rules tell sub-region is determined by the electorate us that we must make recommendations of the combined boroughs. for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in September 2018. They Of the existing constituencies, we propose also result in a significant reduction in to retain: one in the borough of Havering, the number of constituencies in England two in the borough of Richmond upon (from 533 to 501), and require that every Thames, and one in the borough of constituency – apart from two specified Kingston upon Thames. exceptions – must have an electorate that is no smaller than 71,031 and no larger Substantial change is required, however, than 78,507. through London in order to comply with the electoral quota. Consequently, it has been Initial proposals necessary to propose 38 constituencies that cross London borough boundaries. We published our initial proposals for Of these, 36 contain part of two London the new Parliamentary constituency boroughs, and two contain parts of three boundaries in England on 13 September or more London boroughs. 2016. Information about the proposed constituencies is now available on our website. Initial proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in London 3 Sub-region Existing allocation Proposed allocation North Thames (Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, 45 42 Brent, Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Hackney, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames,* Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Westminster, and the City of London) South Thames (Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, 28 26 Greenwich, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond upon Thames,* Southwark, Sutton, and Wandsworth) *Richmond upon Thames is divided between these two sub-regions by the River Thames In order to create 68 constituencies wholly How to have your say within London, we have proposed one constituency (Bow and Canning Town) We are consulting on our initial proposals that crosses the River Lee. We have not for a 12-week period, from 13 September proposed any constituencies that cross 2016 to 5 December 2016. We encourage the River Thames. everyone to use this opportunity to help us shape the new constituencies – the more views we hear, the more informed our decisions will be when considering whether to revise our proposals. Our website at www.bce2018.org.uk has more information about how to respond as well as details of where and when we will be holding public hearings in your area. You can also follow us on Twitter @BCE2018 or using #2018boundaryreview. 4 Boundary Commission for England 1 What is the Boundary Commission for England? 1 The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) is an independent and You can find further information on our impartial non-departmental public body website, at www.bce2018.org.uk. You which is required to review Parliamentary can also contact us with any general constituency boundaries in England. We enquiries by emailing information@ conduct a review of all the constituencies boundarycommissionengland.gov.uk, in England every five years. Our role is to or by calling 020 7276 1102. make recommendations to Parliament for new constituency boundaries. 2 The Chair of the Commission is the Speaker of the House of Commons, but by convention he does not participate in the review. The current Deputy Chair, Mrs Justice Patterson, and two further Commissioners, take decisions on proposals and recommendations for new constituency boundaries. Further information about the Commissioners can be found on our website.1 1 At www.bce2018.org.uk Initial proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in London 5 2 Background to the 2018 Review 3 We are currently conducting a review 5 This is a significant change to the old of Parliamentary constituency boundaries rules under which Parliamentary boundary on the basis of rules set by Parliament in reviews took place, in which achieving as 2011. 2 These rules require us to reduce the close to the average number of electors number of constituencies in the UK and in each constituency was an aim, but make more equal the number of electors in there was no statutory fixed permissible each constituency. This report covers only range. For example, in England, existing the work of the Boundary Commission for constituencies (drawn under the previous England (there are separate Commissions rules) currently range from 54,232 to for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) 105,448 electors. Furthermore, the current and, in particular, introduces our initial constituencies were constructed under the proposals for London. last completed review, which relied on the data contained in the electoral registers for 4 The rules set out in the legislation 2000 and applied the earlier version of the state that there will be 600 Parliamentary rules. Achieving a more even distribution constituencies covering the UK – a of electors in every constituency across reduction of 50 from the current England, together with the reduction in number. This means that the number of the total number of constituencies, means constituencies in England must be reduced that a significant amount of change to the from 533 to 501. There are also other existing map of constituencies is inevitable. rules that the Commission has regard to when conducting the review – a full set 6 Our Guide to the 2018 Review of the rules can be found in our Guide to contains further detailed background the 2018 Review3 published in summer information, and explains all the policies 2016, but they are also summarised later and procedures that we are following in in this chapter. Most significantly, the rules conducting the review. We encourage require every constituency we recommend anyone wishing to be involved in the review (with the exception of two covering the Isle to read this document, which will give them of Wight) to contain no fewer than 71,031 a greater understanding of the rules and electors and no more than 78,507. constraints placed on the Commission, especially if they are intending to comment on our initial proposals. 2 The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011, available at www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/1/contents 3 Available at www.bce2018.org.uk and at all places of deposit Initial proposals for new Parliamentary constituency boundaries in London 7 The rules in the legislation 9 Although the first review under the new rules will unavoidably result in 7 As well as the primary rule that significant change, we have also taken constituencies must have no fewer than into account the boundaries of existing 71,031 electors and no more than 78,507, constituencies so far as we can. We have the legislation also states that, when tried to retain existing constituencies deciding on boundaries, the Commission as part of our initial proposals wherever may also take into account: possible, as long as the other factors can also be satisfied. This, however, has • special geographical considerations, proved difficult. Our initial proposals retain including in particular the size, shape just over 5% of the existing constituencies and accessibility of a constituency; in London – the remainder are new • local government boundaries as they constituencies (although in a number existed on 7 May 2015; of cases we have been able to limit the • boundaries of existing constituencies; changes to existing constituencies, making and only minor changes as necessary to enable • any local ties that would be broken us to comply with the rules). by changes in constituencies. 10 Our proposals are based on the nine 8 In addition, in relation to local regions used for European elections (though government boundaries in particular, it it should be clear that our work has no should be noted that we are obliged to take effect on European electoral matters, nor is into account local government boundaries it affected by the recent referendum result). as they existed in May 2015, rather than This report relates to London. There are any subsequent changes that may have eight other separate reports containing been made (or are due to be made). Our our initial proposals for the other regions. initial proposals for London (and the You can find more details in our Guide to accompanying maps) are therefore based on the 2018 Review and on our website. While local government boundaries as they existed this approach does not prevent anyone in May 2015. Our Guide to the 2018 Review from making proposals to us that cross outlines further our policy on how, and to regional boundaries (for example, between what extent, we take into account local London and the South East regions), very government boundaries.