Boundary Committee for England
The Boundary Committee for England was a statutory committee of the
The committee's responsibilities related solely to local government boundaries: responsibility for parliamentary boundaries lies with the
History/establishment
On 1 April 2002 responsibility for electoral reviews in England transferred to the Electoral Commission. On the same day the Boundary Committee for England became a statutory committee of the commission. The committee undertook electoral reviews and made recommendations to the commission as to whether electoral changes should be made in respect of the area under review. The commission then decided whether to implement the committee's recommendations. The decision of the commission would be taken at a commission meeting comprising the Electoral Commissioners as members.
The Boundary Committee for England replaced the
The protocol on the relationship between the Boundary Committee for England and the Electoral Commission sets out the roles and responsibilities of each body in terms of securing fair boundary arrangements for local elections in England.
Responsibilities and objectives
The Boundary Committee for England was responsible for three types of review: electoral reviews; administrative boundary reviews; and structural reviews.
Electoral reviews
An electoral review considered whether the boundaries of wards or divisions within a local authority need to be altered to take account of changes in electorate. The Electoral Commission would direct the committee to undertake electoral reviews and was then responsible for implementing them.
The committee also looked at the number of councillors, the number of wards or divisions and whether the wards or divisions should be represented by a single councillor, or jointly by two or three councillors.
Administrative boundary reviews
At the request of the
Structural reviews
A structural review was used to establish whether one or more single, all-purpose councils, known as
Organisation
Chair and committee members
- Max Caller CBE was appointed chair of the Boundary Committee for England in 2007. He also serves as an Electoral Commissioner.
Boundary Committee members:[when?]
- Jane Earl
- Joan Jones CBE
- Professor Colin Mellors
- Dr Peter Knight CBE DL
- The Director of the Boundary Committee for England was Archie Gall
LDEDC Act – changes to Boundary Committee structure
The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, which received royal assent on 12 November 2009, provided for the establishment of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE), and for the transfer to it of all the boundary-related functions of the Electoral Commission and the Boundary Committee for England.[1] This reflects the recommendations of the Committee on Standards on Public Life (CSPL), which were supported by the Electoral Commission and the Boundary Committee. This transfer took place in April 2010.
References
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20110811215340/http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/82923/Royal-Assent-on-LDEDC-letter-to-all-CXs.pdf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-08-11.
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