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In theUnited Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to theHouse of Commons.
Within theUnited Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituencies" as opposed to "wards":
Between 1921 and 1973 the following body also included members elected by constituencies:
Electoral areas called constituencies were previously used in elections to theEuropean Parliament, prior tothe United Kingdom's exit from the European Union (seeEuropean Parliament constituency).
Inlocal government elections (other than for the London Assembly) electoral areas are calledwards orelectoral divisions.
House of Commons, Scottish Parliament, Senedd and Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies are designated as eithercounty orborough constituencies, except that in Scotland the termburgh is used instead ofborough. Since the advent ofuniversal suffrage, the differences between county and borough constituencies are slight. Formerly (seebelow) the franchise differed, and there were alsocounty borough anduniversity constituencies.
Borough constituencies are predominantlyurban while county constituencies are predominantlyrural. 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 ofGlasgow,Edinburgh,Aberdeen,Dundee and three urban areas ofLanarkshire.[2]
In England and Wales, the position ofreturning officer in borough constituencies is heldex officio by the mayor or chairman of the borough or district council, and thehigh 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'schief 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.
| Elected body | Constituency type | |
|---|---|---|
| borough/burgh | county | |
| House of Commons[5][6] | £11,390 + 8p per elector | £11,390 + 12p 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 |
Forby-elections to any of these bodies, the limit in all constituencies is £100,000.[5][7]
In theHouse of Commons of England, eachEnglish county elected two "knights of the shire" while each enfranchisedborough elected "burgesses" (usually two, sometimes four, and in a few cases one).[8]From 1535 eachWelsh county and borough was represented, by one knight or burgess.[9] The franchise was restricted differently in different types of constituency; in county constituenciesforty shilling freeholders (i.e. landowners) could vote, while in boroughs the franchise varied frompotwallopers, giving many residents votes, torotten boroughs with hardly any voters. Acounty borough was the constituency of acounty corporate, combining the franchises of both county and borough. Until 1950 there were alsouniversity constituencies, which gave graduates an additional representation.
Similar distinctions applied in theIrish House of Commons, while the non-university elected members of theParliament of Scotland were called Shire Commissioners and Burgh Commissioners. After theActs of Union 1707, Scottish burghs were grouped intodistricts of burghs in theParliament of Great Britain, except thatEdinburgh was a constituency in its own right. After theActs of Union 1800, smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised, while most others returned only one MP to the United Kingdom Parliament.
TheReform Act 1832 reduced the number ofparliamentary boroughs in England and Wales by eliminating the rotten boroughs. It also divided larger counties into two two-seatdivisions, the boundaries of which were defined in theParliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, and gave seven counties a third member. Similar reforms were also madefor Scotland andfor Ireland. TheRedistribution 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.
TheHouse 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.
TheParliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 gives the Boundary Commissions forEngland,Wales,Scotland andNorthern 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[10] between, for example,South Northamptonshire (acounty constituency) andNorthampton South (aborough constituency).
In the2005 United Kingdom general election, the House of Commons had646 constituencies covering the whole of the United Kingdom. This rose to 650 in the2010 election following theFifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. Each constituency elects oneMember of Parliament (MP) by the "first-past-the-post" system of election.[11]
The House of Commons is one of the two chambers of thebicameralParliament of the United Kingdom, the other being theHouse of Lords.[12]
There are fourteenLondon Assembly constituencies covering theGreater London area, and each constituency elects one member of the assembly by thefirst-past-the-post system. Elevenadditional members are elected from Greater London as a whole to produce a form or degree ofmixed-member proportional representation.
Constituency names and boundaries remain now as they were for thefirst general election of the assembly, in 2000.
The assembly is part of theGreater London Authority and general elections of the assembly are held at the same time as election of themayor of London.
There are 18Northern Ireland AssemblyConstituencies: four borough (forBelfast) and 14 county constituencies elsewhere (see below).
Each elects fiveMLAs to the 90 member NI Assembly by means of thesingle transferable vote system. Assembly Constituency boundaries are identical to theirHouse of Commons equivalents.[13]
The constituencies below are not used for the election of members to the 11district councils.[14]
| Name | Current boundaries | Name |
|---|---|---|
 |
Scottish Parliament constituencies are sometimes calledHolyrood constituencies, to distinguish them fromWestminster (House of Commons) constituencies.[15] TheScottish Parliament Building is in theHolyrood area ofEdinburgh, while the main meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is thePalace of Westminster, in theCity of Westminster.[16]
There are 73 Holyrood constituencies coveringScotland, and each elects oneMember of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by thefirst-past-the-post system. Also, the constituencies are grouped into eight electoral regions, and each of these regions elects sevenadditional members, to produce a form or degree ofmixed-member proportional representation.[17]
The existing constituencies were created, effectively, for thefirst 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 theOrkney Holyrood constituency, covering theOrkney Islands council area, and theShetland Holyrood constituency, covering theShetland Islands council area. For Westminster elections, thesecouncil areas were covered (and still are covered) by theOrkney and Shetland Westminster constituency.
In 1999, under theScotland Act 1998,[18] 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 theScottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004,[19] which enabled the creation of a new set of Westminster constituencies without change to Holyrood constituencies. The new Westminster boundaries became effective for the2005 United Kingdom general election.
There are 40 Senedd constituencies coveringWales, and each elects oneMember of the Senedd (MS) by thefirst-past-the-post system. Also, the constituencies are grouped into five electoral regions, and each of these regions elects fouradditional members, to produce a form or degree ofmixed-member proportional representation.
The current set of Senedd constituencies is the second to be created. The first was created for thefirst general election of the National Assembly for Wales, in 1999.
Before itswithdrawal from the European Union in 2020, the United Kingdom elected itsMembers of the European Parliament (MEPs) through twelve multimemberEuropean Parliamentconstituencies. One,Northern Ireland, usedsingle transferable vote, while the eleven coveringGreat Britain used thed'Hondt method ofparty-list proportional representation.
For its firstEuropean Parliamentary elections in1979 Great Britain was divided into a number of single-memberfirst-past-the Post constituencies, matching the way Westminster MPs are elected. Following the decision that all MEPs should be elected by some form ofproportional representation, theLabour government passed theEuropean Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, creating eleven constituencies on Great Britain, which were first used in1999.[20]
TheSouth West England constituency was expanded from the2004 elections onward to includeGibraltar, the onlyBritish overseas territory that was part of theEuropean Union, following a court case.[21]