Section 6 : Amendment of Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986
30.Section 6 amends the Parliamentary Constituencies (PC) Act 1986. Under the Act the four Boundary Commissions have the function of recommending the boundaries of UK Parliamentary constituencies. Section 6 requires them to submit their reports in the first review of boundaries to be conducted under changes made by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies (PVSC) Act 2011 between 1 and 30 September 2018, instead of before 1 October 2013 as currently specified by the PC Act.
31.This change of date necessitates other changes to the PVSC Act which are made by section 6. The Boundary Commissions’ discretion to consider inconveniences attendant on boundary changes as a factor when drawing up proposals is to continue to apply only after the first review, but the date of that review in section 11 of the PVSC Act is changed from 2013 to 2018. Section 6 also postpones the review into the effects of the reduction in the number of constituencies provided for under section 14 of the PVSC Act to take place after the 2020 general election and not the 2015 election.