House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1944

Speaker's Conference and resultant legislation The rules continuing into the 21st century for the redistributions of seats in the House Commons evolved from the Speaker's Conference in 1944. The conference recommended an electoral quota for Great Britain calculated from the electorate and a 25 per cent tolerance on either side and that the total number of Members of the House of Commons should remain substantially the same with the Northern Ireland seats fixed at 12; the number of Scottish seats should be not less than 71 and the number of Welsh seats not less than 35. This was swiftly enacted in the act. In the period 1944 to 1958, the primacy of equality rule was diluted in five ways by further legislation: • Abolition of strict 25 per cent rule • Introduction of separate quotas for England, Wales and Scotland • Greater presumption against inconveniences of disruption. • Mandatory local inquiries in certain circumstances • A longer period between reviews of 10 to 15 years, rather than 3 to 7 Thereafter, the rules were only subject to minor change by statute, mainly to take account of changes in local authority structures. ==Amendment and repeal==

The act was amended by the '''''' (10 & 11 Geo. 6. c. 10). The whole act was succeeded and repealed by section 8(1) of, and the third schedule to, the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 66), which came into force on 1 April 1950. The act amended the rules for the redistribution of seats, but did not change the membership or procedures of the commissions. == Notes ==