United Kingdom constituencies

In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.

Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituencies" as opposed to "wards":

The House of Commons (see Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom)
The Scottish Parliament (see Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions)
The Senedd (see Senedd constituencies and electoral regions)
The Northern Ireland Assembly (see Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies)
The London Assembly (see List of London Assembly constituencies)

Between 1921 and 1973 the following body also included members elected by constituencies:

The Parliament of Northern Ireland (see Northern Ireland Parliament constituencies)

Electoral areas called constituencies were previously used in elections to the European Parliament, prior to the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union (see European Parliament constituency).

In local government elections (other than for the London Assembly) electoral areas are called wards or electoral divisions.

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Hello Internet The UK had an election we need to talk about because after the debates finished, the people voted and the ballots tallied the results were this: But parliament ended up looking like this: Which isn't, exactly, representative. And by not exactly, I mean at all. Red earned 30% of the vote and 36% of the seats, which is sort of close, but the rest is madness: Orange earned 8% of the vote but got one eighth of that while Yellow's 5% just about doubled, and purple earned 13% and got squat. Meanwhile blue's 37% of the people booted to 51% of the seats in parliament. The blue boost is even bigger when you consider that 51% of the seats gives basically 100% the control. How'd this happen? In the UK -- national elections aren't really national, they're a bunch of local elections. The UK is divided into constituencies, each of which elects one member of parliament (M.P.) to represent them. This local / national divide is where the trouble begins. Imagine a parliament with just three constituencies, and it's easy to see how it wouldn't always align with citizens. Some people think this sort of result is fine -- “it's all *about* winning local elections,” they’ll say. “Each M.P. represents their constituency.” And while the imbalance in this example is dumb, but it's the same problem in the real election and this same argument is given, but there are two more problems with it in reality land. 1) Few citizens have any idea who their MP is, they just know what party they voted for -- what party they want to represent their views on the national level. And pretending like it's a local election is a bit disingenuous. -- in practice it's an election for now the nation will run -- not really for who is going to represent a tiny part of it. and even if it were 2) The individual constituencies are worse at representing their citizens than parliament. Indulge this spreadsheet-loving nerd for a moment, will you? The difference between what a party earned at the polls and what they got in parliament is the amount of misrepresentation error. If we calculate all the errors for all the parties and add them up we can say the Parliament as a whole has 47% percentage points of misrepresentation error. That sounds bad looks like a utopian rainbow of diversity compared to any local election because the local elections have *one* winner. Out of the 650 constituencies 647 have a higher representation error than parliament. These are the only three that don't and they're really unusual for having so many of a single kind of voter in one place. Most places look the The Wrekin which is dead in the middle a mere one-hundred and one points off. Note that the winning candidate didn't reach a majority here. Which means more than half of constituencies elected their MP with a minority of voters. The worst is Belfast South at the bottom of the list. Hilariously unrepresentative. Less than a quarter of the voters get to speak for the entire place in parliament. This is the the lowest percentage an M.P. has ever been elected by. So when people argue that the UK election is a bunch of local elections 1) people don't act like it, and 2) It's even more of an argument that the elections are broken because they're worse on this level. These local elections are unrepresentative because of the terrible 'First Past the Post' voting system -- which I have complained mightily about and won't repeat everything here -- go watch the video -- but TL;DR it only 'works' when citizens are limited to two choices. Voting for any party except the biggest makes it more likely the biggest will win by a minority -- which is exactly what happened. That citizens keep voting for smaller parties despite knowing the result is against their strategic interests demonstrates the citizenry wants diverse representation -- but that successes is the very thing that's made this the most unrepresentative parliament in the history of the UK. People happy with the results argue the system is working fine -- of course they do. Their team won. Government isn't a sport where a singular 'winner' must be determined. It's a system to make rules that everyone follows and so, we need a system where everyone can agree the process is fair even if the results don't go in their favor. If you support a system that disenfranchises people you don't like and turbo-franchises people you do -- then it doesn't look like you sport representative democracy, it looks like you support a kind of dictatorship light. Where a small group of people (including you) makes the rules for everyone. But as it is now, on election day the more people express what they want the worse the system looks which makes them disengaged at best or angry at worst and GEE I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY. This is fixable, there are many, many better ways the UK could vote -- here are two that even keep local representatives. And fixing voting really matters, because this is a kind of government illegitimacy score -- and it's been going up and may continue to do so unless this fundamentally broken voting system is changed.

County constituencies and borough constituencies

House of Commons, Scottish Parliament, Senedd and Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies are designated as either county or borough constituencies, except that in Scotland the term burgh is used instead of borough. Since the advent of universal suffrage, the differences between county and borough constituencies are slight. Formerly (see below) the franchise differed, and there were also county borough and university constituencies.

Borough constituencies are predominantly urban while county constituencies are predominantly rural. There is no definitive statutory criterion for the distinction; the Boundary Commission for England has stated that, "as a general principle, where constituencies contain more than a small rural element they should normally be designated as county constituencies. Otherwise they should be designated as borough constituencies."^[1] In Scotland, all House of Commons constituencies are county constituencies except those in the cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and three urban areas of Lanarkshire.^[2]

In England and Wales, the position of returning officer in borough constituencies is held ex officio by the mayor or chairman of the borough or district council, and the high sheriff of the county in county constituencies.^[3] The administration of elections is carried out by the acting returning officer, who will typically be a local council's chief executive^[4] or Head of Legal Services. The role, however, is separate from these posts, and can be held by any person appointed by the council. The spending limits for election campaigns are different in the two, the reasoning being that candidates in county constituencies tend to need to travel farther.

Spending limits for election campaigns
Elected body	Constituency type
Elected body	borough/burgh	county
House of Commons^[5]^[6]	£7,150 + 5p per elector	£7,150 + 7p per elector
Northern Ireland Assembly	£5,483 + 4.6p per elector	£5,483 + 6.2p per elector
Scottish Parliament and Senedd	£5,761 + 4.8p per elector	£5,761 + 6.5p per elector

For by-elections to any of these bodies, the limit in all constituencies is £100,000.^[7]^[8]

History

In the House of Commons of England, each English county elected two "knights of the shire" while each enfranchised borough elected "burgesses" (usually two, sometimes four, and in a few cases one).^[9] From 1535 each Welsh county and borough was represented, by one knight or burgess.^[10] The franchise was restricted differently in different types of constituency; in county constituencies forty shilling freeholders (i.e. landowners) could vote, while in boroughs the franchise varied from potwallopers, giving many residents votes, to rotten boroughs with hardly any voters. A county borough was the constituency of a county corporate, combining the franchises of both county and borough. Until 1950 there were also university constituencies, which gave graduates an additional representation.

Similar distinctions applied in the Irish House of Commons, while the non-university elected members of the Parliament of Scotland were called Shire Commissioners and Burgh Commissioners. After the Acts of Union 1707, Scottish burghs were grouped into districts of burghs in the Parliament of Great Britain, except that Edinburgh was a constituency in its own right. After the Acts of Union 1800, smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised, while most others returned only one MP to the United Kingdom Parliament.

The Reform Act 1832 reduced the number of parliamentary boroughs in England and Wales by eliminating the rotten boroughs. It also divided larger counties into two two-seat divisions, the boundaries of which were defined in the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, and gave seven counties a third member. Similar reforms were also made for Scotland and for Ireland. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 23) equalised the population of constituencies; it split larger boroughs into multiple single-member constituencies, reduced smaller boroughs from two seats each to one, split each two-seat county and division into two single-member constituencies, and each three-seat county into single-member constituencies.

The House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1958, eliminated the previous common electoral quota for the whole United Kingdom and replaced it with four separate national minimal seat quotas for the respective Boundaries commissions to work to, as a result the separate national electoral quotas came into effect: England 69,534; Northern Ireland 67,145, Wales 58,383 and in Scotland only 54,741 electors.

Naming

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 gives the Boundary Commissions for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the power to create names for constituencies, and does not provide a set of statutory guidelines for the Commissions to follow in doing so.

Constituency names are geographic, and "should normally reflect the main population centre(s) contained in the constituency". Compass points are used to distinguish constituencies from each other when a more suitable label cannot be found. Where used, "The compass point reference used will generally form a prefix in cases where the rest of the constituency name refers to the county area or a local council, but a suffix where the rest of the name refers to a population centre." This is the reason for the difference in naming between, for example, North Shropshire (a county constituency) and Reading West (a borough constituency).^[11]

House of Commons constituencies

In the 2005 United Kingdom general election, the House of Commons had 646 constituencies covering the whole of the United Kingdom. This rose to 650 in the 2010 election following the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the "first-past-the-post" system of election.^[12]

The House of Commons is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Parliament of the United Kingdom, the other being the House of Lords.^[13]

London Assembly constituencies

There are fourteen London Assembly constituencies covering the Greater London area, and each constituency elects one member of the assembly by the first-past-the-post system. Eleven additional members are elected from Greater London as a whole to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation.

Constituency names and boundaries remain now as they were for the first general election of the assembly, in 2000.

The assembly is part of the Greater London Authority and general elections of the assembly are held at the same time as election of the mayor of London.

Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies

There are 18 Northern Ireland Assembly Constituencies: four borough (for Belfast) and 14 county constituencies elsewhere (see below).

Each elects five MLAs to the 90 member NI Assembly by means of the single transferable vote system. Assembly Constituency boundaries are identical to their House of Commons equivalents.^[14]

The constituencies below are not used for the election of members to the 11 district councils.^[15]

Name	Current boundaries	Name
Belfast East BC Belfast North BC Belfast South BC Belfast West BC East Antrim CC East Londonderry CC Fermanagh & South Tyrone CC Foyle CC Lagan Valley CC	Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland	Mid Ulster CC Newry & Armagh CC North Antrim CC North Down CC South Antrim CC South Down CC Strangford CC Upper Bann CC West Tyrone CC

Scottish Parliament constituencies

Scottish Parliament constituencies are sometimes called Holyrood constituencies, to distinguish them from Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies.^[16] The Scottish Parliament Building is in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh, while the main meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Palace of Westminster, in the City of Westminster.^[17]

There are 73 Holyrood constituencies covering Scotland, and each elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first-past-the-post system. Also, the constituencies are grouped into eight electoral regions, and each of these regions elects seven additional members, to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation.^[18]

The existing constituencies were created, effectively, for the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, in 1999. When created, all but two had the names and boundaries of Westminster constituencies. The two exceptions were the Orkney Holyrood constituency, covering the Orkney Islands council area, and the Shetland Holyrood constituency, covering the Shetland Islands council area. For Westminster elections, these council areas were covered (and still are covered) by the Orkney and Shetland Westminster constituency.

In 1999, under the Scotland Act 1998,^[19] the expectation was that there would be a permanent link between the boundaries of Holyrood constituencies and those of Westminster constituencies. This link was broken, however, by the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004,^[20] which enabled the creation of a new set of Westminster constituencies without change to Holyrood constituencies. The new Westminster boundaries became effective for the 2005 United Kingdom general election.

Senedd constituencies

There are 40 Senedd constituencies covering Wales, and each elects one Member of the Senedd (MS) by the first-past-the-post system. Also, the constituencies are grouped into five electoral regions, and each of these regions elects four additional members, to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation.

The current set of Senedd constituencies is the second to be created. The first was created for the first general election of the National Assembly for Wales, in 1999.

European Parliament constituencies

Before its withdrawal from the European Union in 2020, the United Kingdom elected its Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) through twelve multimember European Parliament constituencies. One, Northern Ireland, used single transferable vote, while the eleven covering Great Britain used the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

For its first European Parliamentary elections in 1979 Great Britain was divided into a number of single-member first-past-the Post constituencies, matching the way Westminster MPs are elected. Following the decision that all MEPs should be elected by some form of proportional representation, the Labour government passed the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, creating eleven constituencies on Great Britain, which were first used in 1999.^[21]

The South West England constituency was expanded from the 2004 elections onward to include Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory that was part of the European Union, following a court case.^[22]

References

^ Boundary Commission for England (2007), Fifth periodical report (PDF), Norwich: TSO (The Stationery Office), ISBN 978-0-10-170322-2, archived from the original (PDF) on 26 July 2011
^ "Boundary Commission for Scotland - Maps - UK Parliament constituencies 2005 onwards". Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
^ Representation of the People Act 1983, Section 24
^ Somerset County Council Regulation Committee (1 November 2012). "Appointment of County Returning Officer" (PDF). Somerset County Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
^ "Representation of the People Act 1983", Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, vol. 1983, no. 2, pp. 76(2)(a), 8 February 1983, retrieved 4 November 2008
^ Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 269 (section 3) The Representation of the People (Variation of Limits of Candidates' Election Expenses) Order 2005 (Coming into force 2005-03-04)
^ "Representation of the People Act 1983", Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, vol. 1983, no. 2, pp. 76(2)(aa), 8 February 1983, retrieved 4 November 2008
^ "Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000", Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, vol. 2000, no. 41, pp. 132(5), 30 November 2000, archived from the original on 14 February 2009, retrieved 4 November 2008
^ Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Granger, Thomas Colpitts (1835). The Law-dictionary, Explaining the Rise Progress and Present State of the British Law. Vol. II (4th ed.). London. p. 10.
^ Welsh Government, Law Wales (3 March 2015). "Historical Timeline of Welsh Law". law.gov.wales. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
^ [1] page 10, Boundary Commission for England, "A guide to the 2013 Review" Sections 41-44, 'Naming'
^ "First Past the Post". Electoral Reform Society. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ "The two-House system". UK Parliament. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ "The Electoral Office of Northern Ireland - EONI". www.eoni.org.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ "Local councils in Northern Ireland". nidirect. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ McGuire, Anne (24 January 2005). "House of Commons Standing Cttee on Delegated Legislation (pt 1)". Hansard. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
^ "Houses of Parliament and The Palace of Westminster, City of Westminster - 1226284 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ Macnab, Scott (10 May 2019). "Holyrood voting system 'hard to understand' says top official". The Scotsman. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ Scotland Act 1998, Office of Public Sector Information website Archived July 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004, Office of Public Sector Information website Archived September 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
^ "The Voting System". www.europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^ Gibraltar should join South West for elections to European Parliament, Electoral Commission new release, 28 Aug 2003 Archived December 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

This page was last edited on 23 March 2024, at 10:28

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