Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004

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Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 [1]
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to replace Schedule 1 to the Scotland Act 1998 making new provision in relation to the constituencies for the Scottish Parliament.
Citation 2004 c. 13
Territorial extent Scotland
Dates
Royal assent 22 July 2004
Other legislation
Amends Scotland Act 1998
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 (c. 13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which severed the link between Scottish Parliament constituencies and Scottish Westminster constituencies.

Contents

Background

Before the act, the Scotland Act 1998 had required that Scottish Parliament constituencies and the Scottish Westminster constituencies shared the same boundaries. [2]

In the November 2003 Queen's speech, the United Kingdom Government committed to retaining all 129 MSPs. [3]

Provisions

The act amended the Scotland Act 1998 to remove the link between Scottish Parliament boundaries and Scottish Westminster boundaries. [4] The act allowed for the number of Scottish Westminster constituencies to be reduced to 59, while keeping the number of Scottish Parliament constituencies. [5]

Reception

The legislation was criticised by Jimmy Hood, Labour MP for Clydesdale, as gerrymandering. [5] Tory MP Peter Duncan described the legislation as "unnecessary". [5]

References

  1. ↑ The citation of this Act by this short title is authorised by section 4 of this Act.
  2. ↑ Mitchell, J (1 July 2000). "New parliament, new politics in Scotland" . Parliamentary Affairs. 53 (3): 605–621. doi:10.1093/pa/53.3.605.
  3. ↑ "New boundary plans put forward". BBC News. 11 December 2003. Archived from the original on 2 September 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  4. ↑ "MSPs keep their numbers up despite the Labour critics Constituencies bill clears Commons by 222 majority". The Herald. 5 May 2004. Archived from the original on 2 September 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 "Commons approves keeping MSPs". BBC News. 4 May 2004. Archived from the original on 2 September 2025. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
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