House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1947
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1947 c. 10 |
| Year | 1947 |
House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act, 1947
(10 & 11 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 10.
An Act to relax the rules set out in the Third Schedule to the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act, 1944, so far as they relate to the application of the electoral quota and, in consequence thereof, to postpone the enumeration date for the purposes of the initial report under section three of that Act.
[18th February 1947]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Amendment of 7 & 8 Geo. 6. c. 41.
(1) In the rules set out in the Third Schedule to the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act, 1944, (hereafter in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’), the following provisions shall cease to have effect, that is to say—
(a ) rule 4 (which limits the electorate of a constituency to not more than a quarter above or below the electoral quota and to which rule 5 as to conformity with local government boundaries is subject); and
(b ) in rule 3, paragraph (1) (which requires a two-member constituency to be divided or return a single member, if its electorate is not within the limits laid down by that paragraph for such a constituency) and sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph (3) (which is supplemental to the said paragraph (1)),
(2) In lieu thereof, the following rule shall be inserted immediately after rule 5 of the said rules, that is to say,—
5A
(1) The electorate of any constituency shall be as near the electoral quota as is practicable having regard to the foregoing rules; and a Boundary Commission may depart from the strict application of the last foregoing rule if it appears to them that a departure is desirable to avoid an excessive disparity between the electorate of any constituency and the electoral quota, or between the electorate thereof and that of neighbouring constituencies in the part of the United Kingdom with which they are concerned.
(2) For the purposes of this rule a constituency returning two members shall be treated as two constituencies.’;
and paragraph (2) of the said rule 3 shall have effect with the substitution for the words ‘Any other two-member constituency shall be divided as aforesaid’ of the words ‘Any two-member constituency shall be divided into or among two or more other constituencies, or shall be required to return a single member,’ and with the addition at the end thereof of the words ‘and, having regard to the two next following rules, that it is undesirable to require it to return a single member’.
(3) Accordingly the rules set out in the said Third Schedule shall have effect, with the amendments made by section thirty-three of the Representation of the People Act, 1945 , and by this Act, as set out in the Schedule to this Act.
(4) The amendments made by this section shall apply for the purposes of the initial report of the Boundary Commissions under section three of the principal Act, as well as to their subsequent reports under section four thereof; and accordingly the enumeration date for the purposes of the initial report shall be the fifteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-six, instead of the fifteenth day of October, nineteen hundred and forty-five (being the day appointed by the Secretary of State under subsection (2) of section thirty-three of the Representation of the People Act, 1945).
(5) Any increase occasioned by the passing of the last foregoing subsection in the expenses of the Commissions which, under paragraph 3 of Part II of the First Schedule to the principal Act, are to be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament shall also be so defrayed.
2 Short title and citation.
2. This Act may be cited as theHouse of Commons...
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