UPDATE:
Following the second consolation and public hearing, the Boundary Commission have published their latest proposals for the final four-week consultation.
You can hear (and read) me argue at the public hearing against Labour and Lib Dem proposals to split the constituency by CLICKING HERE.
In the end the Boundary Commission have recommended the creation of a 'Workington and Whitehaven' constituency, and another 'Penrith and Solway' constituency containing nearly two thirds of the current Workington constituency, as the local and national Labour Party requested, along with the Lib Dems.
Labour requested that the constituencies were named 'West Cumbria' and 'Penrith and Solway', the Lib Dems requested that the constituencies were named 'Whitehaven and Workington' and 'Penrith and Solway'.
You can download the maps and the report below.
Initial Proposals
Whether it's to comment on the boundaries, the constituency name or on the proposals more generally, I encourage everyone to have their say
Mark Jenkinson MP
Have your say
Please take a minute to send your comments to me using the survey at the bottom of this page (UPDATE: The survey is now closed).
The proposed map and the report for the North West can be downloaded from the 'Attachments' section.
Who are the Boundary Commission for England and why are they doing this?
The Boundary Commission for England (BCE) is an independent and impartial non-departmental public body, which is required to review Parliamentary constituency boundaries in England (there are separate commissions for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). They must conduct a review of all the constituencies in England every eight years. Their role is to make recommendations to Parliament for new constituency boundaries.
BCE are currently conducting a review of Parliamentary constituency boundaries on the basis of rules most recently updated by Parliament in 2020.
These rules require BCE to make more equal the number of electors in each constituency. The legislation states that there will be 650 Parliamentary constituencies covering the UK – the same as the current number. England has been allocated 543 constituencies for the 2023 Review, ten more than there are currently. There are also other rules that the Commission has regard to when conducting the review – a full set of the rules can be found in our Guide to the 2023 Review, available at www.bcereviews.org.uk and at all places of deposit. Most significantly, the rules require every constituency we recommend (with the exception of two covering the Isle of Wight) to contain no fewer than 69,724 electors and no more than 77,062 (as at 2 March 2020).
This is a significant change to the old rules under which Parliamentary boundary reviews took place, in which achieving as close to the average number of electors in each constituency was an aim, but there was no statutory fixed minimum and maximum number of electors. This, together with the passage of time since constituencies were last updated (based on data from 2000), means that in England, existing constituencies currently range from 54,551 to 111,716 electors. Achieving a more even distribution of electors in every constituency across England, together with the increase in the total number of constituencies, means that a significant amount of change to the existing map of constituencies is inevitable.
As far as possible, BCE try to have regard to local ties, geographic factors, local government boundaries (as they were known at 1 December 2020), existing constituencies, and minimising disruption caused by proposed change. They use local government wards as the building blocks for proposed constituencies, but will consider splitting a ward where there is a strong case for doing so that helps us better respect the factors above.
What are the timescales?
8 June - 2 August 2021: Consultation on initial proposals
There is an eight week period of public consultation on our proposals, during which BCE encourage people to give their views, in particular describing alternatives they believe would be better.
Early 2022: Secondary consultation and public hearings
All of the responses to the first consultation are published and there is a six-week period of 'secondary consultation', during which people can give their views on what others have said in the first consultation. There are no new proposals at this stage. During this six week period, BCE will also hold a limited number of public hearings in each English region (more details of these hearings will be made available closer to the time).
Late 2022: Third and final consultation
After analysing all the responses from the first and second consultations, BCE will make appropriate changes to their initial proposals and publish these 'revised proposals' for a final four-week period of public consultation.
By 1 July 2023: Final report and recommendations
After analysing all the responses to the third consultation, BCE will make appropriate changes to our revised proposals, and submit their final report and recommendations. This is the end of BCE involvement in the process.
Late 2023: Recommendations made into law
Within four months of the last of the four Commissions submitting their report, the UK Government must prepare the Order that would bring all their recommendations into law. Following recent changes, this Order no longer needs the approval of Parliament: it is sent directly to the Privy Council. If the Privy Council approves, the new constituencies are used at the next General election following that (not at any interim by-elections).
What does that mean for me?
For the North West as a region, the number of constituencies will decrease from 75 to 73, and in Cumbria that means 5 whole constituencies and one that crosses the Cumbria/Lancashire border. The new constituencies could not go North into Scotland, or East into the North East region.
in their report, this is what BCE have to say about Cumbria and the Workington constituency:
"There are currently six constituencies in Cumbria, none of which have electorates that are within the permitted electorate range. Therefore none are able to be retained unchanged. Furthermore, only five constituencies can be wholly allocated within the county boundary, necessitating one cross-county boundary constituency to be constructed, the larger part of which is within Lancashire. The sub-region as a whole has been allocated 20 constituencies. There will therefore have to be fairly significant change across the Cumbria and Lancashire sub-region."
" Although we were able to propose a constituency which is coterminous with the District of Allerdale, this would result in another constituency that would extend across Cumbria. We therefore propose a Workington constituency that is more closely aligned with the boundaries of the Allerdale district than the existing constituency. This allows us to maintain both the distinction between the ports of Workington and Whitehaven, and take account of new local government ward boundaries in this area. Our proposed Workington constituency therefore contains all the wards of Allerdale district, except the Crummock & Derwent Valley and the Keswick wards. As mentioned above, it also contains the Dalston & Burgh ward from the City of Carlisle"