Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill — Clause 9 — Number and distribution of seats — 20 Oct 2010 at 21:00

The majority of MPs voted to reduce the number of MPs by 50 to 600 and to equalise the number of electors in each UK Parliamentary constituency with some exceptions for hard to access areas.

Technically the vote was on accepting Clause 9 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill as amended.

The key elements of the clause include:

• Setting the number of MPs at 600 (a reduction from 650). This provision was the subject of a separate division^[1] and was the primary subject of debate on the Clause.
• Equalising the number of electors in each Parliamentary Constituency to between 95%-105% of the "quota" arrived at by dividing the total number of electors by the number of MPs to be elected.
• Making exceptions to the lower limit for sparsely populated areas to prevent impractically large constituencies.
• The constituencies of "Orkney and Shetland" and "Na h-Eileanan an Iar" (The Outer Hebrides) are to be preserved.
• A provision allowing Northern Ireland to be allocated a set number of seats.

What was Clause 9 during the committee of the whole house became Clause 10^[2] in the next draft of the Bill.

• [1] Division on The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill — Clause 9 — Number of MPs
• [2] Clause 10 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill - Number and distribution of seats As published on 26.10.2010 ie. the text of the clause as amended in the Commons.

Debate in Parliament | Source |