Final consultation on review of Wales’ parliamentary constituencies closes

The final consultation period of the Boundary Commission for Wales’ 2023 review of parliamentary constituencies closed at 23:59 yesterday (15 November) with a record number of responses having been received since the beginning of the review.

The consultation – on the Commission’s Revised Proposals for the new map of 32 Welsh parliamentary constituencies – was the last in several opportunities for the public to share their views ahead of Final Recommendations being submitted to Parliament in 2023.

The Commission received around 2,000 responses during 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 in July 2023.

Grateful

Commenting on the closure of the consultation, Secretary to the Boundary Commission for Wales, Shereen Williams MBE OStJ said, “I’m very grateful to the people of Wales for playing such an active part in this Review.

“Throughout this Review process, we’ve asked the public to share their expertise on their local areas to strengthen our proposals and the Commission is delighted with the level of public engagement we have received throughout this Review.

“The Commission has already made significant changes to its proposals based on representations received during the first two consultations.

“We will now consider the hundreds of representations received over the last 4 weeks and our Final Recommendations will be significantly strengthened by the amount of feedback we’ve received from the public.”

The Commission’s Final Recommendations, to be submitted in July 2023, will come to force at the next ordinary general election by the automaticity rule, meaning that no vote in parliament is required for the recommendations to be enacted.