Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions

Not to be confused with Scottish Westminster constituencies.

Scotland

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Scotland
Government First Minister: Nicola Sturgeon Deputy First Minister: John Swinney Cabinet Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service Civil Service Directorates Public bodies Executive agencies Local government
Parliament Presiding Officer: Tricia Marwick Acts Statutory Instruments Shadow Cabinets Members (MSPs) 1999 2003 2007 2011 Elections 1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 Constituencies and electoral regions Legislative Consent Motion
Law Supreme Court (UK) Supreme Courts Sheriff Courts Land Courts Justice of the Peace Courts Lord Lyon Court
Scotland in the UK Her Majesty's Government Scotland Office Sec. of State: D. Mundell Under-Sec.: A. Dunlop UK Parliament Grand Committee Select Committee Reserved matters Elections Constituencies Current Westminster MPs
Scotland in the EU European Parliament elections Constituency
Administrative divisions Local government Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
Other countries Atlas British politics portal

Overview

1999 to 2011

2011–(Review)

Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood), created by the Scotland Act 1998.

The parliament has 73 constituencies, each electing one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) system of election, and eight additional member regions, each electing seven additional MSPs.

Each region is a group of constituencies, and the D'Hondt method of allocating additional member seats from party lists is used to produce a form of proportional representation for each region.

The total number of parliamentary seats is 129. For lists of MSPs, see Member of the Scottish Parliament.

Boundaries of Holyrood and British House of Commons (Westminster) constituencies are subject to review by the Boundary Commission for Scotland, and prior to the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 reviews of Scottish Westminster constituencies would have been also reviews of Holyrood constituencies.

The Arbuthnott Commission, in its final report, January 2006, recommended that council area boundaries and Holyrood and Scottish Westminster constituency boundaries should all be reviewed together. This recommendation has not been implemented.

Boundaries

1999 to 2011

Main article: Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions 1999 to 2011

Until the 2005 United Kingdom general election the first past the post constituencies were the same as for the House of Commons (United Kingdom Parliament, Westminster), except for Orkney and Shetland, which were separate constituencies at Holyrood, but not at Westminster. The Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 enabled a new set of House of Commons constituencies to be formed in Scotland in 2005,^[1] reducing their number and, therefore, the number of Scottish Members of Parliament (MPs) to 59, without change to the Holyrood constituencies and the number of MSPs.

1999 boundaries were used also for the 2003 and 2007 elections.

From 2011

Main article: Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions from 2011

The first periodical review of boundaries of Scottish Parliament constituencies^[2] was announced on 3 July 2007,^[3] and the commission's final recommendations were implemented for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.

Total numbers of constituencies, regions, and MSPs remain at, respectively, 73, 8, and 129.

References

Subdivisions of Scotland

Local government regions Historic counties Burghs Lieutenancy areas Council areas Parliamentary regions

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, October 20, 2014. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.