Clause 1 - Electoral regions in the United Kingdom
European Parliament (Representation) Bill
4:30 pm
Ms Yvette Cooper (Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department; Pontefract and Castleford, Labour)
I agree with the principle of the amendment. However, adding the words ''and Gibraltar'' has a curious effect that has an impact on the timing, so I would resist the amendment.
If the words ''and Gibraltar'' were added and the electors of Gibraltar included, the redistribution calculations done by the Electoral Commission before the 2004 elections would also need to include Gibraltar. Therefore, those calculations would have to wait until a decision had been taken on the region and the Gibraltar electorate registered on the new Gibraltar register. Given that the decision on the region is unlikely to be made before October 2003, the Gibraltar register is unlikely to be ready until December 2003. The work on redistribution would then not be complete until well into 2004, which would cause a difficulty with the elections. Because of the timing of the Bill, the commission's work on its two elements must take place concurrently, and the Bill has been drafted to allow that.
Once the Bill is fully implemented, Gibraltar will form part of one of the regions of England or Wales and automatically will be included in any future redistribution calculations. The electorate of Gibraltar—20,000 at the maximum—will have a limited impact on the redistribution calculations for regions of several million. For example, London has
5 million voters and the south-west 4 million. Therefore, the amendment would have virtually no impact on the outcome of the calculations but a significant impact on the timing of their completion.
I entirely accept what the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) is trying to do but, for practical considerations, I ask him to seek to withdraw the amendment.