The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 fundamentally changed the way in which reviews of parliamentary constituencies boundaries are conducted. The new rule requiring the electorate of all but four constituencies to be within 5% of the UK average number of electors for a constituency meant that the Boundary Commissions were unable to give adequate consideration to other factors. Although there is a case for the electorates of parliamentary constituencies to be more equal than is the case at present, the Boundary Commissions must be able to take a balanced approach to various considerations-including reflecting local ties and limiting disruption to existing constituencies. If no action is taken, the next boundary review will commence in early 2016. It is recommended that the rules be changed-including relaxing the 5% rule and reversing the reduction of the number of parliamentary constituencies to 600-ahead of the next boundary review. To achieve this, the next Government should make a statement no later than June 2015 on its policy on the rules for the distribution of parliamentary constituencies. This statement should respond to the recommendations set out in this report. The Government should in July 2015 publish a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny and introduce a Bill in the autumn of 2015 to receive Royal Assent by early 2016.

The Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee was established in June 2010 to consider political and constitutional reform. Over the last five years the Committee has scrutinised the Government's substantial programme of political and constitutional reform - which included fixing the term of a Parliament, bringing forward proposals for recalling MPs, establishing a register of third party lobbyists and implementing Individual Electoral Registration. The establishment of a dedicated select committee to consider these matters has brought additional parliamentary scrutiny to a substantial part of the Government's programme. Should the next Government plan to take forward constitutional reform, a select committee be established to examine the Government's proposals, to keep the progress of any political and constitutional reform under regular review, and to continue the work this Committee has undertaken. The Committee has also highlighted the extent to which it has engaged the public with it's work through consultations and increased use of social media, online surveys and informal events. This public engagement is one of it's greatest innovations, and something which it encourages other committees to adopt in the future

Provides an accessible, discursive, and scholarly treatment of the key contemporary issues in UK Public Law.

Constitutional and Administrative Law is a clear and concise text which allows students to easily get to the heart of the subject.

When people vote in a democracy, they expect the result of the election to be 'fair.' Is this true in the UK and if not, why not? This book explains how our system of 'first-past-the-post' translates votes into seats and is essential reading at a time of unprecedented electoral uncertainty.

Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom are elected to represent geographic constituencies; but how are these defined and what are the consequences for democracy? Tracing the UK’s system of parliamentary representation from its origins in the thirteenth century right through to the present, this comprehensive new survey reveals how a system initially designed to restrain the power of monarchs gradually evolved to serve their interests, then those of political parties before the twentieth century ‘settlement’ of an independent process for revising the constituency map. That settlement is now under pressure, with the traditional pattern of constituencies representing communities about to be replaced by one which elevates numbers above community. Advanced under the slogan of ‘making votes equal’, this new regime promises fairness yet, as the authors show, is destined to fail to address the disproportional and biased election results that have long been a feature of UK politics. Concluding with a detailed consideration of the ways in which various parts of the UK have embraced alternatives to first-past-the-post over the last two decades, this book serves as a timely reminder that the needs of political parties do not always coincide with those of us, the electors.

Clear disparities exist between notions of representative democracy and political practice in Britain. Alternative models of democracy, however, have their own incongruities in trying to marry representation and democracy. This book analyses the mismatches in democratic theories and between theory and practice in British representative democracy.