Background
General
8.The provisions contained in the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 give effect to a commitment contained in The Coalition: Our Programme for Government. The document can be found at:
9.This document set out the Government’s intention to:
“…bring forward a Referendum Bill on electoral reform, which includes provision for the introduction of the Alternative Vote in the event of a positive result in the referendum, as well as for the creation of fewer and more equal sized constituencies.”
10.This commitment forms part of a package of political reforms proposed by the Government, which also includes proposals to establish fixed term Parliaments, introduce a right of recall for MPs who have engaged in serious wrongdoing, reform the House of Lords and speed up implementation of individual voter registration.
11.The Bill was introduced into the Commons on 22 July 2010, and received Royal Assent on 16 February 2011.
12.The Bill was the subject of two reports of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, published on 27 July (1st Report of Session 2010-11) and 6 October 2010 (3rd Report of Session 2010-11), both of which are available at:
13.The Government’s response to this report was published as a Command Paper (Cm 8016) on 4 March 2011. This is available at:
14.The House of Lords Constitution Committee published their report on the Bill (7th Report of Session 2010-11) on 10 November 2010. This is available at:
15.The Government’s response to this report was published as a Command Paper (Cm 8016) on 11 February 2011. This is available at:
