The 2023 Review of Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries in England – Volume one: Report – East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands currently has 46 constituencies. Of these constituencies, 17 have electorates within the permitted range. The electorates of seven constituencies currently fall below the permitted range, while the electorates of 22 constituencies are above. Our proposals increase the number of constituencies in the region by one, to 47.
The East Midlands comprises the counties of Derbyshire (including the City of Derby), Leicestershire (including the City of Leicester), Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire (including the City of Nottingham), and Rutland, and is covered by a mix of district and county councils, and unitary authorities.
We appointed two Assistant Commissioners for the East Midlands – Peter Fish CB and Alison Blom-Cooper – to assist us with the analysis of the representations received during the first two consultation periods. This included chairing public hearings, which were held in the region in order to hear oral evidence directly from the public. The dates and locations of these hearings were:
In formulating our initial proposals, we noted that the electorate of the East Midlands of 3,481,126 results in it being entitled to 47 constituencies, an increase of one. We then considered how this number of constituencies could be split across the region.
We noted that Northamptonshire’s electorate of just under 530,000 results in a mathematical entitlement to 7.22 constituencies. We therefore decided to allocate the county seven constituencies and treated it as a stand-alone sub-region. Similarly, we noted that Derbyshire (including the City of Derby) has an electorate of 790,982, which results in an entitlement to 10.78 constituencies. We therefore decided to allocate 11 constituencies to Derbyshire and Derby, the same as the existing allocation, and treat it as a stand-alone sub-region also.
The combined electorate of Nottinghamshire and the City of Nottingham is just over 823,000, which results in the area being mathematically entitled to 11.22 constituencies, the same as the existing number, and we again decided to treat it as a sub-region.
Lincolnshire has an electorate of 551,904, resulting in a mathematical entitlement to 7.52 constituencies. Therefore, it was necessary to pair Lincolnshire with a neighbouring county in order to develop a pattern of constituencies that all remain within the permitted electorate range. We identified that Rutland had a mathematical entitlement to 0.41 constituencies, which when paired with Lincolnshire resulted in a mathematical entitlement to 7.93 constituencies. We therefore proposed allocating eight constituencies to a sub-region formed of Lincolnshire and Rutland together.
In formulating our initial proposals we recognised that Rutland presently was included in a subregion with Leicestershire (including the City of Leicester), which was not necessary, given that Leicestershire and the City of Leicester, with an electorate of 754,549, resulted in a mathematical entitlement to 10.28. We therefore proposed allocating Leicestershire (including the City of Leicester) ten constituencies and treating it as a stand-alone sub-region.
The use of the sub-regions outlined above was largely supported during the consultation on the initial proposals. We did receive some objections to the split of sub-regions with an alternative arrangement suggested as:
a sub-region comprising the areas of Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire
a sub-region comprising the areas of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
In formulating our revised proposals, we considered that no persuasive evidence had been received to propose an alternative sub-region of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, particularly given the little changes required to the existing constituencies in Derbyshire. However, we were persuaded by the evidence received to adopt an alternative sub-region combining Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire. We considered that this sub-region allowed for improvements to the initial proposals in respect of the statutory factors.
In response to our revised proposals, we did not receive any further evidence that would justify the use of alternative sub-regions to those we adopted in our revised proposals. Therefore, the sub-regions we propose as part of the final recommendations are:
Derbyshire (including City of Derby)
Nottinghamshire (including City of Nottingham)
Leicestershire (including City of Leicester), Lincolnshire and Rutland
