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Post by Peter Wilkinson on Oct 29, 2020 18:20:00 GMT
And note "Provisional release date: January to February 2021" which I don't think is in the bill currently passing through the Lords The provisional release date has certainly been altered since the webpage was initially published. It originally said Oct/Nov 2020. And, at least under current conditions, it would probably not be sensible to have a date in the bill. At least in the past, the relevant electoral registers for December statistics would probably have been compiled by local authorities using the ward and polling district boundaries that were then used to classify the statistics. However, the March 2020 statistics will need to be produced from the versions, as updated up to March 2020, of electoral registers originally prepared for December 2019, but redivided by ward boundaries approved up to December 2020 and polling districts that will otherwise only be required once local elections are scheduled to be fought on them (which will most often be by May 2021 but, for affected London boroughs, will be May 2022, and in principle could be even later than that elsewhere). The data can't be published until the Boundaries Commission (or, probably more specifically, the ONS on its behalf) has the March 2020 statistics, at least at ward level. It might be possible for the ONS to do this itself from registers already in its possession - but that would depend on the ONS, rather than just the local authorities, having possession of copies of the March updates (which might not even be legal). Otherwise, the local authorities' often understaffed electoral registration departments will have to do it themselves, at a time when local authorities are already having to cope with Covid (and, in many cases, potential reorganisation). Having said that, if the data isn't ready for release by the end of February, it is difficult to see how the Boundaries Commission can do more than preliminary work on the review. Edit: I see that John Chanin has already said much of this. |
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Post by evergreenadam on Oct 29, 2020 20:41:37 GMT
The provisional release date has certainly been altered since the webpage was initially published. It originally said Oct/Nov 2020. And, at least under current conditions, it would probably not be sensible to have a date in the bill. At least in the past, the relevant electoral registers for December statistics would probably have been compiled by local authorities using the ward and polling district boundaries that were then used to classify the statistics. However, the March 2020 statistics will need to be produced from the versions, as updated up to March 2020, of electoral registers originally prepared for December 2019, but redivided by ward boundaries approved up to December 2020 and polling districts that will otherwise only be required once local elections are scheduled to be fought on them (which will most often be by May 2021 but, for affected London boroughs, will be May 2022, and in principle could be even later than that elsewhere). The data can't be published until the Boundaries Commission (or, probably more specifically, the ONS on its behalf) has the March 2020 statistics, at least at ward level. It might be possible for the ONS to do this itself from registers already in its possession - but that would depend on the ONS, rather than just the local authorities, having possession of copies of the March updates (which might not even be legal). Otherwise, the local authorities' often understaffed electoral registration departments will have to do it themselves, at a time when local authorities are already having to cope with Covid (and, in many cases, potential reorganisation). Having said that, if the data isn't ready for release by the end of February, it is difficult to see how the Boundaries Commission can do more than preliminary work on the review. Edit: I see that John Chanin has already said much of this. Not complicated at all then! |
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