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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord for that opportunity. As I am sure that the noble and learned Lord will confirm, a public hearing simply involves an opportunity for people to come to a room—a town hall or a village hall—to make or read a statement. It is recorded, and that is it. The next person then stands up and makes a statement, and then he or she sits down. It goes on like that. A record is kept of what is said, but there is no resolution of any issues. The statement of what is said is then, I assume, placed on the web so that everybody can see what was said A public enquiry would involve Mr X saying, ““I think that the boundaries should be here””, and Mr Y saying, ““I think that the boundaries should be there””. Then the chair—having heard all the representations that people want to make, determining what the process is, having heard what everybody has said—says, ““I recommend to the Boundary Commission that it should draw the boundaries there””. So it is a process where issues are identified and some resolution is given. That is the fundamental difference.