List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies 2005–10

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This is a list of the 646 previous constituencies of the United Kingdom parliament.

There are 650 in the 2010 election constituencies currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as at the 2005 general election. Each constituency is represented by a single Member of Parliament (MP).

Constituency boundaries are subject to regular review by the four independent Boundary Commissions, usually once every 10 to 15 years, to keep the electorate of each constituency as close to the national average as is reasonably possible. New constituencies may be created, or existing ones abolished, by these reviews. For the list of recommended constituencies following the current review see Constituencies in the next United Kingdom general election.

Constituencies were long based on boroughs (burghs in Scotland) and counties. Today, constituencies in England are mostly subdivisions of local authorities, with each constituency comprising a number of whole wards. In Scotland, constituencies are subdivisions of council areas, and in Wales they are subdivisions of the preserved counties. Northern Ireland is reviewed as a whole, and constituency boundaries may cross all district borders.

In some cases, particularly in urban areas, two or more local government areas may be combined together to form a single review area, so that particularly large or small constituencies are not created. For example, if two adjacent areas are entitled to 1.5 constituencies each, they may be combined together and awarded three constituencies, rather than having two constituencies each, all of which would be well below the average constituency electorate.

The average constituency size is approximately 74,000 registered voters, but they vary in size from the smallest (Na h-Eileanan an Iar at 22,200 voters) to the largest (the Isle of Wight at approximately 110,000 voters). A constituency has no physical size restrictions.

The Parliament of 2001 contained representatives from 659 constituencies. Most of the current constituency boundaries were last reviewed in the early 1990s, and are therefore based on administrative boundaries prior to the last series of local government boundary changes. However, a Boundary Commission for Scotland review in February 2005 resulted in the reorganisation of most Scottish constituencies to adjust for the historic over-representation of Scotland. This reduced the number of constituencies in Scotland by 13, from 72 down to the current 59. The Parliament of 2005 therefore had 646 representatives. In the 2010 Election on 6 May 2010 the number of seats contested has increased from 646 to 650 as a result of boundary changes. Technically an absolute majority would require one party to win 326 seats, or else there would be a hung parliament.

Contents
1 England
1.1 East Midlands Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire
1.2 East of England Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk
1.3 Greater London North East, North West, South East, South West
1.4 North East England Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear
1.5 North West England Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside
1.6 South East England Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, West Sussex
1.7 South West England Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire
1.8 West Midlands Hereford and Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands
1.9 Yorkshire and the Humber Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire
2 Northern Ireland
3 Scotland
4 Wales

England

East Midlands

Derbyshire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Northamptonshire

Nottinghamshire

East of England

Bedfordshire

Cambridgeshire

Essex

Hertfordshire

Norfolk

Suffolk

Greater London

North East London Boroughs

North West London Boroughs

South East London Boroughs

South West London Boroughs

North East England

Cleveland

Durham

Northumberland

Tyne and Wear

North West England

Cheshire

Cumbria

Greater Manchester

Lancashire

Merseyside

South East England

Berkshire

Buckinghamshire

East Sussex

Hampshire

Isle of Wight

Kent

Oxfordshire

Surrey

West Sussex

South West England

Avon

Cornwall

Devon

Dorset

Gloucestershire

Somerset

Wiltshire

West Midlands

Hereford and Worcester

Shropshire

Staffordshire

Warwickshire

West Midlands (county)

Yorkshire and the Humber

Humberside

North Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

West Yorkshire

Northern Ireland

Scotland

The Fifth Periodical Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland related the boundaries of new constituencies to those of Scottish local government council areas and to local government wards. Apart from a few minor adjustments, the council area boundaries dated from 1996 and the ward boundaries dated from 1999. Some council areas were grouped to form larger areas and, within these larger areas, some constituencies straddle council area boundaries.

Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders

South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire

North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire

East Lothian, Midlothian

City of Edinburgh

West Lothian, Falkirk

West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire

Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde

Glasgow City

Stirling, Clackmannanshire, Perth and Kinross

Fife

Angus, Dundee City

Aberdeenshire, City of Aberdeen

Moray, Argyll and Bute, Highlands

The Outer Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland

Wales

See also

External links

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