Boundary Commissions (United Kingdom)

Boundary Commissions in the UK are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constituencies for elections to the Westminster (UK) Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales. There are four boundary commissions in the United Kingdom: one each for England, Scotland, Wales (Welsh: Comisiwn Ffiniau i Gymru), and Northern Ireland.

There are four members of each Commission, of which three actually take part in meetings. The Speaker of the House of Commons is the ex officio Chairman of each Boundary Commission, though he takes no part in the proceedings. The Deputy Chairman of a Commission, who presides over Commission meetings, is always a Justice in a British court.

Legislation

The Commissions are currently established under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, most recently amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011. They were first established as permanent bodies under the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1944. The 1944 Act was amended in 1947 and then replaced by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. The 1949 Act was amended in 1958 and 1979 and replaced by the 1986 Act. The changes in legislation from 1944 to 1986 were generally incremental in nature. The 2011 Act made substantial changes to the legislation governing constituency boundary reviews.

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 envisaged that the functions of the Boundary Commissions would be transferred to the United Kingdom Electoral Commission, but this never took place: the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 repealed the relevant legislation with effect from 1 April 2010.

United Kingdom Parliament constituencies

The Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was launched on 4 March 2011 by the Boundary Commission for England,^[1] Boundary Commission for Scotland,^[2] Boundary Commission for Wales^[3] and Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland.^[4] The Sixth Review would have resulted in 600 constituencies for the United Kingdom Parliament: a reduction from the 650 constituencies that existed for the General Election of 2010. The number of constituencies in each of the 4 home countries is calculated in proportion to the electorate using a formula set out in the legislation. For the Sixth Review, the formula specified 502 constituencies in England, 16 constituencies in Northern Ireland, 52 constituencies in Scotland, and 30 constituencies in Wales.

In January 2013, parliament amended the legislation governing the Sixth Review with the effect that the review was cancelled. Each Commission is required to conduct subsequent reviews of all constituencies in its part of the United Kingdom every 5 years.

Considerations and process

The Boundary Commissions are required to apply a series of rules when designing constituencies.

Firstly, each proposed constituency has to comply with 2 numerical limits:

• the electorate of each constituency must be within 5% of the United Kingdom electoral quota. This number is the total mainland electorate divided by the number of mainland constituencies, which is 596. In simple terms, it is the average electorate of a mainland constituency.
• the area of a constituency must be no more than 13,000 square kilometres.

There are a small number of exceptions to the numerical limit on electorate which are specified in the legislation:

• a constituency covering the Orkney and Shetland Islands, another covering the Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles), and two covering the Isle of Wight each of which are permitted to have a smaller electorate than the usual limit;
• a constituency with an area of more than 12,000 square kilometres may have a smaller electorate than the usual limit; and
• constituencies in Northern Ireland may be subject to slightly different limits under certain circumstances.

Having satisfied the electorate and area requirements, each Commission can also take into account a number of other factors:

• "special geographical considerations" including the size, shape and accessibility of a constituency;
• local government boundaries;
• boundaries of existing constituencies;
• local ties which would be broken by changes to constituencies;
• inconveniences resulting from changes to constituencies.

It is obvious that the other factors are to an extent mutually contradictory, and therefore each Commission has discretion on how it applies them. In doing so, each Commission aims for a consistent approach within a review.

When a Commission publishes its proposals for public consultation, the consultation period is specified in the legislation:

• for Initial Proposals, a 12 week initial consultation period including a number of Public Hearings which offered an opportunity to give views orally;
• after the Initial Proposals, a 4 week secondary consultation allowing scrutiny of all comments submitted during the initial consultation; and
• for Revised Proposals, an 8 week consultation period.

It has been normal practice for local government electoral wards to be used as building blocks for constituencies, although there is no legislative requirement to do so. In Scotland, the introduction of multi-member wards in 2007 has made it harder to do so, since these wards each have a large electorate, and therefore a collection of complete wards may not give an electorate that is close to the required average.

The law specifies that the electorate used during a review is the registered electorate at the time of the start of the review, and not the electorate at the end of a review, or the total population.

Boundary changes can have a significant effect on the results of elections,^[5] but Boundary Commissions do not take any account of voting patterns in their deliberations, or consider what the effect of their recommendations on the outcome of an election will be.

Previous reviews of UK Parliament constituencies

Previously, each Commission conducted a complete review of all constituencies in its part of the United Kingdom every eight to twelve years. In between these general reviews, the Commissions were able to conduct interim reviews of part of their area of responsibility. The interim reviews usually did not yield drastic changes in boundaries, while the general reviews generally did. The most recent^[6] general review in Wales was given effect by an Order made in 2006,^[7] in England by an Order from 2007^[8] and in Northern Ireland by an Order from 2008,^[9] with the new boundaries used for the May 2010 general election. The most recent general review in Scotland was given effect in 2005,^[10] and the resulting constituencies were used in the May 2005 general election.

Under the previous rules, the number of constituencies in Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) had to "not be substantially greater or less than 613", of which at least 35 had to be in Wales. The City of London was not to be partitioned and was to be included in a seat that referred to it by name. The Orkney and Shetland Islands were not to be combined with any other areas. Northern Ireland had to have 16-18 constituencies.^[11]

Under the earlier legislation for reviews, the rules for reviews were significantly different:

• the total number of constituencies was not fixed (see above): each Commission had limited discretion to specify the number in its part of the United Kingdom;
• electorate was just one of several rules, rather than being a numerical limit which overrides other factors;
• there was not previously a limit on the area of a constituency, but in practice no constituency has ever exceeded the 13,000 square kilometre limit introduced by the 2011 Act;
• the consultation mechanism was significantly different: consultation periods only lasted 4 weeks, and could be followed by Local Inquiries;
• reviews were only carried out every 8 to 12 years instead of every 5 years.

At the 2010 general election there were 533 constituencies in England, 40 constituencies in Wales, 59 constituencies in Scotland and 18 constituencies in Northern Ireland giving a total of 650.

Devolved parliaments and assemblies

The Boundary Commissions are also responsible for reviews of boundaries for devolved parliaments and assemblies.

The procedure for reviews of constituencies and regions for the Scottish Parliament is set down by the Scotland Act 1998. That Act specifies that there are 73 constituencies for the Scottish Parliament: the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands and 71 others. The Act also specifies that the constituencies are grouped into 8 regions to allow the return of list members elected by proportional representation to the Parliament. The Boundary Commission for Scotland conducted a review of these boundaries between 2007 and 2010,^[12] whose recommendations were implemented from 2011. Since the legislation requires different numbers of constituencies in Scotland for the United Kingdom Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, these 2 sets of areas do not fit together neatly.

The Government of Wales Act 2006 specified that the constituencies for the National Assembly for Wales were the same as those for the Westminster Parliament. The Act required the Boundary Commission for Wales to group the constituencies into electoral regions, to allow the return of list members elected by proportional representation to the Assembly. The Boundary Commission for Wales's Fifth General Review resulted in revised Assembly constituencies and electoral regions. The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 removed the link between Westminster constituencies and National Assembly for Wales constituencies: replacement legislation is expected in time for the National Assembly elections in 2015.

Section 33 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 provides that the constituencies for the Northern Ireland Assembly are the same as the constituencies that are used for the United Kingdom Parliament, but there are six members rather than just one elected from each constituency.^[13]

Implementation of recommendations

Once a Commission has completed a review, it makes a report to the appropriate Secretary of State who puts legislation to the Parliament implementing the recommendations. Parliament may approve or reject these recommendations, but may not amend them. If Parliament approves the recommendations, then the sovereign makes an Order formalising the boundary changes which are used at the next general election. Any by-elections use the pre-existing boundaries.

Although for many years the legislation gave the Secretary of State power to modify a Commission’s recommendations, this power was never used. This separates boundary making by a combination of structure and convention from those elected from the resulting electoral areas. This significantly reduces any scope for gerrymandering.

Relationship with local government functions

The scope of the Boundary Commissions’ work is limited to areas for election to Parliaments and Assemblies. Local authority areas and electoral areas are reviewed by the separate, but similarly named Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland, Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales, Local Government Boundary Commission for England and Local Government Boundaries Commissioner for Northern Ireland. There is a measure of public confusion about what the effect of changing a parliamentary boundary will be – it will have no effect on, for example, schooling, council tax, planning decisions, rubbish collections or street lights.

See also

• Electoral Affairs Commission of Hong Kong
• Irish Boundary Commission which drew the border between the (then) Irish Free State and Northern Ireland in 1925

References

External links

• Boundary Commission for England
• Boundary Commission for Scotland
• Boundary Commission for Wales
• Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland
• Election maps of the UK