Government Response to the Committee's Report on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Graham Allen MP, Chair of the Committee, said:

“My committee published its report on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill in October last year, working at top speed to meet the government’s tight timetable for the bill. The government is generally supposed to set out its response to committee conclusions and recommendations within two months, and should have done so in our case by December. Even if it had missed this deadline, a response while the bill was still completing its passage through Parliament – as late as the beginning of February – would have been helpful and relevant. In fact, I received a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister in the first week of February, telling me that a response would be published that very week. It was not.

“With all of this in mind, while I welcome the quality of the government’s response to our report, I regret very much that it is being published only today, too late to inform parliamentary consideration of the bill. This delay was particularly unfortunate given that the report itself expresses concerns about the process for scrutiny of the government’s constitutional legislation. The government has apologised to the committee for the delay and said that this situation will not recur. We will hold them to their word.”

FURTHER INFORMATION:

The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee’s report on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill is available at
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmpolcon/437/437.pdfThe

Government’s response will be available at
Government response to the report of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill