Following the passing of the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020 in December 2020, and the publication of the relevant Parliamentary electorate data in January 2021, the Boundary Commission (BC) began a new review of all Parliamentary constituencies in England. This is normally referred to as the ‘2023 Review’, as the BC are required to report their final recommendations by 1 July 2023.

Applying the statutory formula to the electorate figures means the total 650 constituencies is distributed during the review to the four parts of the UK as follows:

• England = 543 (includes two ‘protected’ constituencies on the Isle of Wight);
• Scotland = 57 (includes two ‘protected’ constituencies for specified Scottish islands);
• Wales = 32 (includes one ‘protected’ constituency on the Isle of Anglesey); and
• Northern Ireland = 18

This Commission has applied the same distribution formula to the English allocation, which results in the following redistribution of constituencies among the nine English regions for the 2023 Review:

• East Midlands = 47 (increase of one)
• Eastern = 61 (increase of three)
• London = 75 (increase of two)
• North East = 27 (decrease of two)
• North West = 73 (decrease of two)
• South East = 91 (increase of seven)
• South West = 58 (increase of three)
• West Midlands = 57 (decrease of two)
• Yorkshire and the Humber = 54 (no change)

Application of further statutory rules to the published electorate also means that all recommended constituencies must have no less than 69,724 Parliamentary electors and no more than 77,062 (except those ‘protected’ constituencies mentioned above). By law, these electorate figures relate to the electorates as they were on 2 March 2020.

What happens next?

The final consultation on the BC revised proposals for new constituencies took place from 8 November to 5 December 2022. The Commission is now analysing all the responses received during this last consultation stage, and will decide whether to make any changes to the revised proposals. The BC will then provide their final report and recommendations to Parliament by 1 July 2023, it will then be for the Government to prepare an order to implement the new constituencies for the whole UK. This should be provided to the Privy Council for approval within four months of the Government receiving the last report of the four Parliamentary Boundary Commissions for the UK. The new constituencies will then take effect at the next general election thereafter.

The proposed boundaries for the Selby constituency and the proposed Wetherby and Easingwold constituencies are shown below:

Note the addition of the Kippax and Methley ward (map area 10) to the new Selby Constituency.

These proposals will also affect the northern part of the exisisting consituency in that the following wards will transfer to the the New Wetherby and Easingwold constituency (see following image and data below):

• Appleton Roebuck and Church Fenton
• Boroughbridge and Claro
• Spofforth with Lower Wharfedale and Tockwith
• Tadcaster
• Washburn and Birstwith

For information the statistics below show the current ward makeup as of 2019 general election and the distribution of wards and electorate as proposed in the 2023 boundary reorganisation

Note the wards highlighted in bold are currently in the Selby and Ainsty constituency but if the proposed changes go through, they will transfer to the new Wetherby and Easingwold constituency.