The Arbuthnott Commission on Boundary Differences and Voting Systems was set up in July 2004 by

Alistair Darling Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member ...

, then

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the Unit ...

, under the chairmanship of Sir John Arbuthnott, to examine various consequences of having four different

electoral system An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and Referendum, referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political ...

s in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, and different boundaries for

constituencies An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

of the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

(

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

, at

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

) and the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

( Holyrood). In 2004, Scotland had three different electoral systems: plurality (

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

) for Westminster and

local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

elections, and two different systems of proportional representation (PR) for

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

and Scottish Parliament elections. The number of systems was due to rise to four in 2007, with the introduction of a third PR system for local government elections. Also, until 2004, legislation required Scottish Parliament constituencies to have generally the same boundaries as Scottish Westminster constituencies. This link was broken by the

Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 The Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 (c 13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends the Scotland Act 1998 which established the Scottish Parliament. Before it was amended by this Act, the Scotland Act 1998 pr ...

, and a new set of Westminster constituencies was created in 2005. Scottish Parliament constituencies remain as they were when created in 1999. The commission published its final report in January 2006, making various recommendations. Full implementation of the commission's recommendations would be beyond the competence of the Scottish Parliament, and would require Westminster legislation.

Consultation

All the main political parties in Scotland participated in a consultation process. So did 22 local government councils, and various other bodies and individuals.

Recommendations

The commission's main recommendations for change may be summarisedThe reports's official summary, as contained in the report itself,
''Putting Citizens First: Boundaries, Voting and Representation in Scotland''
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821100714/http://www.scotlandoffice.gov.uk/uploads/Final%20version%20of%20report.pdf , date=August 21, 2008 , is somewhat longer, and more discursive as follows: * The

mixed member proportional system Mixed-member proportional representation (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...

used for elections to the Scottish Parliament should be revised. In order to give voters more choice over the election of regional members, the closed list system should be replaced by open lists, enabling voters to choose between individual regional list candidates. * This revised electoral system, if implemented, should be reviewed following experience of two elections. If further reform is judged necessary, consideration should be given at that time to introducing the

single transferable vote system Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

for Scottish Parliament elections. * The boundaries of all electoral divisions should be based on local government council areas. Therefore, in the future, so far as possible, boundaries for council areas, Scottish Parliament constituencies and Westminster constituencies should be reviewed together. * The

should be introduced for elections to the European Parliament, so reducing the number of election systems to three. * Scottish Parliament elections and local government elections should be held on separate days, to reduce voter confusion due to using different voting systems * Measures should be introduced to keep voters better informed about voting systems, election results and the responsibilities of elected representatives * Electronic developments should be adopted to provide citizens with a more direct voice in political processes.

References

External links

Archive version of the commission's website
Organizations established in 2004 2004 in Scotland Organizations disestablished in 2006 2006 in Scotland Electoral reform in the United Kingdom Elections in Scotland Political organisations based in Scotland