Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has today (Monday 13 November) confirmed that, following his recommendation to Her Majesty The Queen, two new commissioners have been appointed to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.
Andrew Scallan CBE and Steve Robinson have been appointed for a term of 4 years, until 6 November 2021. The Local Government Boundary Commission for England’s role is to review and implement changes to the electoral arrangements of local authorities, having regard to the statutory criteria of equality of representation, community identity and effective and convenient local government.
This involves determining the number of councillors for an individual authority, the boundaries for wards and electoral divisions and the number of councillors for each ward.
Andrew Scallan CBE was the Deputy Chief Counting Officer at the referendum on membership of the European Union in 2016 and also served as Director of Electoral Administration at the Electoral Commission for 10 years until January 2017. Before joining the Electoral Commission, he worked for Manchester City Council in a range of roles including democratic and regulatory services. He is also an Honorary Member of the Association of Electoral Administrators and is a former joint editor of Schofield’s Election Law.
Andrew was appointed CBE in January 2016 for services to electoral democracy.
Steve Robinson, who has a background in housing and regeneration, was the first chief executive of the new unitary council in Cheshire West and Chester established in September 2008. Before joining Cheshire West and Chester Council, he was the chief executive of Stoke on Trent City Council and was responsible for the transformation of council services in his previous role as Director of Community Services.
Steve is currently also a member of the Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel that is supporting Birmingham City Council.
Further appointments of Commissioners to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England are expected to be made early in 2018.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England is a parliamentary body, independent of both central and local government. However, appointments to the Commission, other than that of the Chair, are made by the Crown on the recommendation of the Secretary of State.
The Commission Board consists of a Chair and at least 4 and no more than 11 other (ordinary) members. With these appointments the board will consist of the Chair and 5 members.
The Commission has a staff of approximately 25. The average annual expenditure, which is funded directly by Parliamentary, is in the order of £2.2 million.
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