Boundary Commission Consultation – blink and you’ll miss it

On 1 March 2012, the Boundary Commission for Scotland started its four week ‘secondary consultation period’ within its Sixth Review of UK Parliament Constituencies. Five public hearings were held during November 2011 in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lanark, Inverness and Dundee. There was, as far as we know, no press release, but the comments made can be seen on the Commission’s website.

The main recommendation was to reduce the number of constituencies in Scotland from 59 to 52. This is part of an overall reduction in the number of Members of Parliament across the United Kingdom from 650 to 600.

Dr Hugh Buchanan, Secretary to the Commission, said, ‘The secondary consultation period, new for this review, enables members of the public to scrutinise and remark on comments and alternative designs which we have received. This will be a very useful process to help us understand the strengths and weaknesses of the different arguments that have been put to us.’ Which does not, when decoded, actually say much.

Although the consultation came and went like a midge on a sunny afternoon, emarks can be submitted through the ‘dedicated response facility’ on Scottish Boundary Commission’s web site,
www.bcomm-scotland.gov.uk or by email to comments@scottishboundaries.gov.uk . The material is
being distributed to ‘display points at public libraries and council offices’ across Scotland.

So that’s all right, then.