As envisaged in the Bermuda Constitution (Amendment) Order 2001, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has now considered the report of the Constituency Boundaries Commission transmitted to him by the Governor, together with the record of the 11 October debate on the report by the House of Assembly and the motion passed by the House approving the report. He has also considered other views which have been expressed on this matter.

Taking all these opinions into account, the Secretary of State is minded to recommend to Her Majesty in Council, in January 2003, the draft Order in Council that follows to amend the Constitution of Bermuda to give legal effect to the Commission's recommendations.

In summary, the draft Order would amend the Constitution -

(a) to provide for 36 members of the House of Assembly: see of the draft Order;

(b) to provide for 36 constituencies each returning one member to the House: see

(c) to establish the 36 new constituencies recommended by the Commission, subject to a power by the Governor, in accordance with section 54 of the Constitution, to alter

the names and boundaries of those constituencies following review by a future

Constituency Boundaries Commission: see .

Any future change to the of constituencies, and thus to the number of members of the House of Assembly, would however require a further Order in Council amending the Constitution.

The draft Order would also amend the Constitution as regards future Constituency Boundaries Commissions:

(a) to maintain the current requirement for such Commissions to be established each 3- 7 years: see ;

(b) to preserve the requirement applied to the last Commission that future Commissions must invite views from members of the public: see ;

(c) to remove the outdated references to parishes in section 54: see ;

(d) to maintain for future Commissions the criteria which the last Commission was required to apply with a view to ensuring, so far as practicable, constituencies of equal size: see .

In consequence, having preserved for the future the relevant provisions of section 2 of the Bermuda Constitution (Amendment) Order 2001 (which established the last Commission), that section would be revoked: see .

Because they would be inconsistent with the current composition of the House of Assembly, sections 3, 4 and 7 of the draft Order, and the Schedule, would come into force upon the next dissolution of the Bermuda Legislature. The next general election would take place using the new 36 constituencies, each returning one member to the House of Assembly. The other provisions of the draft Order would come into force earlier (about a month after the Order was made). of the draft Order would so provide. In case Bermuda legislation should be required to make anticipatory provision for elections from single-member constituencies, of the draft Order would enable this.

The draft Order would also take the opportunity to tidy up some (unrelated) outdated references in the Constitution to bring them into line with changes made by the Bermuda Constitution (Amendment) Order 2001: see .