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 was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster). It elected 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.
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.
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 (first-past-the-post) voting system, ordinarily every five years. Voting last took place in all 650 of those constituencies at the United Kingdom general election on 4 July 2024.
Dwyfor Meirionnydd is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, held by Liz Saville Roberts of Plaid Cymru. The seat is bordered to the north by Bangor Aberconwy, to the south by Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, and to the east by Clwyd East. Until 2024, the seat shared the same boundaries with the Dwyfor Meirionnydd Welsh Assembly constituency, the latter of which still uses the borders established for the 2007 Welsh Assembly election.
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.
The Senedd constituencies and electoral regions are the electoral districts used to elect members of the Senedd to the Senedd, and have been used in some form since the first election of the then National Assembly for Wales in 1999. New boundaries were introduced for the 2007 elections and currently consist of forty constituencies and five regions. The five electoral regions are: Mid and West Wales, North Wales, South Wales Central, South Wales East, and South Wales West, with the forty constituencies listed below. Voting last took place in all districts in the 2021 Senedd election, and is not used for local government.
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 2013 periodic review of Westminster constituencies, also known as the sixth review, 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 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 of the United Kingdom. The new constituency boundaries were approved by the Privy Council on 15 November 2023 and came into law on 29 November.
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 county of Northumberland has returned four MPs to the UK Parliament since 1983. Under the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, coming into effect for the 2024 general election, the boundary commission proposed that two of the four constituencies be shared with the county of Tyne and Wear.
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. The new constituency borders came into law on 29 November 2023. For a summary of the outcome of the review, see 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies.
