Local Government (Democracy) (Wales) Act 2013

30 Considerations for a review of principal area electoral arrangements

(1) The Commission, in considering whether to make recommendations for changes to the electoral arrangements for a principal area, must—

(a) seek to ensure that the ratio of local government electors to the number of members of the council to be elected is, as nearly as may be, the same in every electoral ward of the principal area,

(b) have regard to—

(i) the desirability of fixing boundaries for electoral wards which are and will remain easily identifiable,

(ii) the desirability of not breaking local ties when fixing boundaries for electoral wards.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), account is to be taken of—

(a) any discrepancy between the number of local government electors and the number of persons that are eligible to be local government electors (as indicated by relevant official statistics), and

(b) any change to the number or distribution of local government electors in the principal area which is likely to take place in the period of five years immediately following the making of any recommendation.

(3) In this section, “relevant official statistics” means such official statistics within the meaning of section 6 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (c. 18) as the Commission considers appropriate.

(4) In this Part, “local government elector” means a person registered as a local government elector in the register of electors in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Acts.