Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the steps taken by the Office for National Statistics to ensure that parliamentary constituency boundary data for March is made available promptly to the Boundary Commissions ahead of the next review of constituency boundaries.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Dear Lord Hayward,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking about the steps taken by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to ensure that parliamentary constituency boundary data for 1 March is made available promptly to the Boundary Commissions ahead of the next review of constituency boundaries (HL9840).

The publication of Electoral Statistics for the 2 March 2020 is scheduled for the beginning of January 2021 and we are confident of publishing at this time. The publication was originally scheduled for October 2020 but problems with Electoral Registration Officers in England and Scotland supplying the required data to ONS and National Records for Scotland meant that the release was delayed. We have been in regular contact with the Cabinet Office and the Boundary Commissions for England and Wales to ensure that any issues are appropriately addressed. We remain on track to release the Electoral Statistics on the revised publication date.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond