This week, Wycombe MP Steve Baker writes exclusively to Bucks Free Press readers:

The Parliamentary Boundary Commission is an independent and impartial public body which is responsible for periodically reviewing all the parliamentary constituencies in England.

The Commission issued proposals for new constituency boundaries. It is required to make a report to the Speaker of the House of Commons before July 2023, recommending any changes it believes are appropriate to the distribution, size, name or designation of constituencies.

One of the Commission’s principles is that all constituencies should have roughly the same number of electors. The population of Buckinghamshire means there needs to be an additional constituency, and this has produced dramatic proposals for the county.

The Commission has initially suggested creating a new constituency called Princes Risborough, which will cover the rural areas south and west of Aylesbury. There are knock-on effects for all the other nearby constituencies.

The Commission proposes another new constituency called Marlow and South Buckinghamshire; this includes many of the areas currently in the Beaconsfield constituency, although the town of Beaconsfield moves to the newly redrawn Chesham and Amersham constituency. The current Wycombe seat is renamed High Wycombe and sees Hazlemere move to Chesham and Amersham as well. It is an honour to represent the good people of Hazlemere, who are closely connected to Wycombe, and I would want to keep the constituency without any changes if I could.

These are only proposals at this stage.

They will be subject to wide public consultation and may be amended. Representations from the public are taken in writing and at public hearings in each region of England across two rounds of consultation.

In light of all the views expressed about these initial proposals, the Boundary Commission may revise them and then conduct a further round of written consultation on the revised proposals.

The Government must turn the recommendations of the Commission into an ‘Order in Council’ that implements the recommendations. The constituencies set out in the Order will then be implemented for the next General Election after the date on which the legislation is approved.