The final recommendations for the 2023 Boundary Review have been laid before Parliament by the Boundary Commission for England.
Here in the Surrey Heath Parliamentary constituency, this will see our seat change, with the loss of all of Ash Parish and Tongham. Surrey Heath will gain Normandy Parish and Pirbright, which will take the total electorate to 70,825.
Initial proposals were first published by the Boundary Commission back in June 2021, following the passing of the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 in December 2020 and the publication of the relevant Parliamentary electorate data in January 2021.
Through the application of the statutory formula to the electorate figures, this meant that the 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom were to be redrawn in the 2023 Review. For the regions in England, this meant an increase of 7 seats here in the South East, taking the total number of constituencies to 91, reflecting the increase in population in the region.
Application of further statutory rules to the published electorate also meant that all recommended constituencies had to have no less than 69,724 Parliamentary electors and no more than 77,062, with exceptions to ‘protected’ constituencies such as the Isle of Wight. By law, these electorate figures had to be the electorates as they were on 2 March 2020.
The next step was these recommendations to be put forward to the Speaker of the House of Commons, which concluded the commissions involvement in the 2023 Boundary Review. Once the reports of all four Parliamentary Boundary Commissions have been laid before Parliament by the Speaker, the Government must prepare a draft Order to implement the new constituencies for the whole UK.
This should be provided to the Privy Council for approval within four months of the last report of the four Parliamentary Boundary Commissions for the UK being laid in Parliament. Once the Privy Council approves the Order, the new constituencies will be used at the next General election following that date (any by-election in the meantime will continue to use the existing constituency).
Pictured, the current Parliamentary boundaries for Surrey Heath in blue, and the new boundaries in red
