THIS week was dominated by preparation for my House of Commons debate on “sentencing for causing death by dangerous driving” based on the tragic death last year of James Gilbey, the son of Major and Mrs Gilbey from Upavon.

James’ parents came up to Westminster to attend the debate and we were encouraged by the Minister’s response when he promised the Government would bring forward urgently a new consultation on the sentencing and penalties for this crime – a commitment reiterated by the Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss when I took the Gilbeys to meet her later the same day.

With nine out of ten people supporting a change in sentencing so that the most serious cases of this crime are tried as manslaughter – or at a minimum attract the same maximum penalty of life imprisonment – and the government committing to this review, I am hopeful that we will see changes that make the punishment more closely fit this awful crime.

The other big news this week was the potential changes to parliamentary constituencies if the Boundary Commission's new proposals are adopted.

I fully support the thinking behind these changes, as the current boundaries for the 650 seats are drawn up on data that in many cases dates back to 2000 and we have some big discrepancies in the number of voters for one MP ranging from 38,000 for Arfon in Wales to 107,000 for the Isle of Wight.

Parliament instructed the Commission to reduce to 600 the number of seats and to come up with a more equal distribution of voters in each, with a range of no more than 78,507 and no less than 71,031.

Almost every seat and every political party is affected, although the changes for the Devizes Constituency (which needs to increase its electorate by a few thousand to meet the target) are minor.

The initial proposal is that Calne and its environs would come into the patch and Bulford, Larkhill, Durrington and Seend would move to other areas, but this is of course a starting point and while I would welcome the opportunity to represent new parts of Wiltshire.

Equally it would be very sad to lose villages where I know so many people and which I have been proud to represent for the last six years.

There are bigger changes to the west and north of us and an overall loss of two seats in the south west so please do have a look at the proposals and have your say via the Boundary Commission website at www.bce2018.org.uk.