Boundary Commission for Wales submits final recommendations following review

The Boundary Commission for Wales has submitted its final recommendations report of the review of parliamentary constituencies to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

The review comes after Westminster voted to cut the number of Wales’ MPs down from 40 to 32.

The new constituencies could also be used at future Senedd elections.

Under rules set out in the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (as amended) each constituency proposed by the Boundary Commission for Wales must contain between 69,724 and 77,062 electors.

The only exception to this rule is Ynys Môn which is a protected constituency, and therefore sees no changes to its name, designation, or boundaries suggested in these proposals.

Notable changes to the newly revised constituencies include:

Newport West and Caerphilly and Islwyn have had their boundaries changed to create a Newport West and Islwyn constituency

Much of the previous Aberconwy constituency has been enlarged to include much of the previous Clwyd, leaving a coastal Clwyd North constituency

All of Bangor is now included in a new Bangor and Aberconwy constituency

The previously intended Delyn constituency extends downwards and becomes Clwwyd East, with Alyn and Deeside keeping its name but almost completely changing its boundaries

St David’s has been taken out of the new Ceredigion-Preseli constituency, and Maenclochog included

The Speaker will lay the report before Parliament in due course and the Commission will then publish the report on its website and portal.

Record responses

The Commission began the review in 2021 and was required to submit its final recommendations to the Speaker of the House of Commons by 1 July this year.

The final public consultation period concluded in November last year after receiving a record number of responses since the beginning of the review.

In all, the Commission received around 2,000 responses over the three consultation periods, significantly higher than the number received during the previous review in 2018.

All representations received by the Commission during the four-week consultation period will be published alongside the Final Recommendations.

Commenting on the report’s submission, Shereen Williams, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for Wales said: “The Commission looks forward to the laying of the Final Recommendations report, which is strongly influenced by the thousands of representations received from the public and our stakeholders.

“We would like to thank Wales’ Members of Parliament, Principal Councils, and Political Parties for the constructive way in which they have engaged with the process.

“Our greatest thanks however is reserved for the members of the public who asked questions, submitted their views, and helped shape Wales’ new parliamentary constituencies.”

The Commission’s Final Recommendations for 32 Welsh parliamentary constituencies will come into force at the next ordinary general election by the automaticity rule, meaning that no vote in parliament is required for the change to be enacted.