Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing parliamentary constituencies representing overseas voters in Parliament.

The Government does not support the creation of parliamentary constituencies for overseas electors. The current and proposed overseas voting arrangements are based on the principle that overseas electors continue to have some form of connection to the area of the country where they were last resident. This is the approach taken generally in other democracies with overseas voting.

The creation of overseas constituencies would also require changes to the way that electoral administration (the registration of voters and the conduct of polls) is organised in Great Britain, where responsibility lies at the local authority level. It would clearly not be appropriate for the Government to carry out these functions for overseas constituencies.