In the United Kingdom, the boundary commissions are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies for elections to the House of Commons. There are four boundary commissions: one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Over the history of the House of Commons, the number of Members of Parliament (MPs) has varied for assorted reasons, with increases in recent years due to increases in the population of the United Kingdom. There are currently 650 constituencies, each sending one MP to the House of Commons, corresponding to approximately one for every 92,000 people, or one for every 68,000 parliamentary electors.
In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.
East Dunbartonshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The seat is possibly best known for formerly being the constituency of Jo Swinson, the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats who was defeated at the 2019 general election. The current MP for the constituency is Amy Callaghan of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Leeds North East is a constituency which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Fabian Hamilton of the Labour Party.
Mid Norfolk is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by George Freeman, a Conservative.
The Parliament of the United Kingdom currently has 650 parliamentary constituencies across the constituent countries, each electing a single member of parliament (MP) to the House of Commons by the plurality voting system, ordinarily every five years. Voting last took place in all 650 of those constituencies at the United Kingdom general election on 12 December 2019.
Scottish Westminster constituencies were Scottish constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain, normally at the Palace of Westminster, from 1708 to 1801, and have been constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, also at Westminster, since 1801. Constituency boundaries have changed on various occasions, and are now subject to both periodical and ad hoc reviews of the Boundary Commission for Scotland.
Paddington was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Paddington district of London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was created for the February 1974 general election, partially replacing the previous Paddington North and Paddington South constituencies, and abolished for the 1983 general election. A Paddington borough constituency has three times been recommended during early stages of Boundary Commission inquiries, only to be altered before the final report was issued.
The House of Commons Act 1949 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided for the periodic review of the number and boundaries of parliamentary constituencies.
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011(c. 1) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provision for the holding of a referendum on whether to introduce the Alternative Vote system in all future general elections to the UK Parliament and also made provision on the number and size of parliamentary constituencies. The Bill for the Act was introduced to the House of Commons on 22 July 2010 and passed third reading on 2 November by 321 votes to 264. The House of Lords passed the Bill, with amendments, on 14 February 2011, and after some compromises between the two Houses on amendments, it received Royal Assent on 16 February 2011.
The 2013 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, also known as the Sixth Review, or just boundary changes, was an ultimately unfruitful cycle of the process by which constituencies of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom are reviewed and redistributed. The four UK boundary commissions carried out their reviews between 2011 and 2013, but their recommendations were not taken up by the government and instead the 2018 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was carried out from 2016 to 2018. That review was also not implemented and its results were formally laid aside in 2020.
The next United Kingdom general election must be held no later than 28 January 2025. It will determine the composition of the House of Commons, which determines the next Government of the United Kingdom. Significant constituency boundary changes will be in effect, the first such changes since before the 2010 general election.
The Second Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was undertaken between 1965 and 1969 by the four Boundary Commissions for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the United Kingdom Parliament as provided by the House of Commons Act 1949 and amended by House of Commons Act 1958. The changes to the constituencies were approved in 1970 and took effect at the February 1974 United Kingdom general election.
The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons. The process for periodic reviews of parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom is governed by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, as amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 and subsequently by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020. This review was the successor to the 2018 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which was ultimately abandoned after it failed to pass into law. Considering the abandonment of the previous reviews since 2015, the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies is set to be the first successful review based on electoral registers drawn up using the Individual Electoral Registration model introduced from 2014–15, which has drawn criticism regarding being a measure to influence future boundary reviews in the Conservatives' favour.
The Fourth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was undertaken in the United Kingdom between 1991 and 1995 by the four Boundary Commissions. As well as changes to constituency boundaries, the Reviews recommended an increase of five seats in England, two in Wales and one in Northern Ireland, with Scotland continuing to have 72 seats. The number of MPs in the House of Commons therefore increased from 651 to 659. 144 new constituencies were created, offset by 136 which were abolished. The new boundaries were first used for the 1997 general election.
The 2018 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was an ultimately unfruitful cycle of the process by which constituencies of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom are reviewed and redistributed. The four UK boundary commissions carried out their reviews between 2016 and 2018, but their recommendations were not taken up by the government and were formally laid aside in 2020.
This article covers the timeline of the most recent cycle of the process to redraw the constituency map for the House of Commons, namely the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. For a summary of the outcome of the review, see 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.
