The Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was undertaken between 2000 and 2007 by the four
boundary commissions for
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
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 ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
for the
UK Parliament
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 supremac ...
. The changes for England, Wales and Northern Ireland took effect at the
2010 United Kingdom general election
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom unde ...
; that for Scotland took effect at the
2005 election. All of the recommendations were approved.
Review process
The
boundary commissions were required at the time by the
Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986
The Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 (c. 56) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is the legislation defining the constitution and work of the four parliamentary Boundary Commissions in the UK. A copy of the current text o ...
to review constituencies in their part of the United Kingdom every eight to twelve years. The Commissions' recommendations from the review were based on the numbers of electors on the electoral register and
ward
Ward may refer to:
Division or unit
* Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward
* Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
boundaries at the start of the review in 2000.
In Scotland, the recommendations were submitted in November 2004, and approved in February 2005. In Wales, the recommendations were submitted on 31 January 2005, and approved on 11 April 2006. In England, the recommendations were submitted on 31 October 2006, and approved on 13 June 2007. In Northern Ireland, the recommendations were submitted on 14 September 2007 and approved on 11 June 2008.
Changes
![2005UKElectionNominalMap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/2005UKElectionNominalMap.svg)
These were the first major changes to UK Parliamentary constituencies since 1997.
As set out in the approval dates above, the
Scottish changes were effective from the 2005 general election. The post-2010 shape of those for the rest of the UK can be viewed alongside those for Scotland of 2005 at
United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
The Parliament of the United Kingdom currently has 650 parliamentary constituencies across the constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), each electing a single member of parliament (MP) to the House of Commons by th ...
.
A side effect of reviews is the number of seats won by each party may change (even if all voters repeated their votes at later elections).
The total number of Scottish seats dropped from 72 to 59, due to changes made by the
Scotland Act 1998
The Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legislated for the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament with tax varying powers and the Scottish Government (then Scottish Executive). It was on ...
, applying the English electoral quota to Scotland. This had reduced total seats back down from 659 to 646, pending the review of the rest of the UK. Only three seats remained unchanged:
East Renfrewshire
East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of ...
(formerly named
Eastwood Eastwood may refer to:
Places
;in Australia
*Eastwood, New South Wales
**Eastwood railway station
**Electoral district of Eastwood
*Eastwood, South Australia
;in Canada
* Eastwood, Ontario
*Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood
;in the Ph ...
), and quota-immune
Orkney and Shetland, and
Na h-Eileanan an Iar (formerly named Western Isles).
In
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, the total seats remained 40, but entailed radical redrawing in
Clwyd
Clwyd () is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east corner of the country; it is named after the River Clwyd, which runs through the area. To the north lies the Irish Sea, with the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire to th ...
and in
Gwynedd
Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
.
Aberconwy,
Arfon and
Dwyfor Meirionnydd replaced
Conwy
Conwy (, ), previously known in English as Conway, is a walled market town, community and the administrative centre of Conwy County Borough in North Wales. The walled town and castle stand on the west bank of the River Conwy, facing Deganwy on ...
,
Caernarfon
Caernarfon (; ) is a royal town, community and port in Gwynedd, Wales, with a population of 9,852 (with Caeathro). It lies along the A487 road, on the eastern shore of the Menai Strait, opposite the Isle of Anglesey. The city of Bangor is ...
and
Meirionnydd Nant Conwy respectively. Per 2006 statistics, Welsh seats have on average 16,000 fewer electors than those of England.
The Boundary Commission for
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
recommended minor changes to seats would take place in the east of the province.
In England, the seats recommended seldom straddle the largest council areas, i.e. counties (metropolitan or otherwise); however they may cross boundaries of
unitary authorities
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
.
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
was consolidated to have two seats, without electoral wards from
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
. The unitary authorities of
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
are represented in Westminster by many cross-authority seats.
The Boundary Commission for England created one extra seat each to represent ten
non-metropolitan counties
A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 million. The term ''shire county'' is, however, an unoffi ...
:
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
,
Warwickshire
Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
and
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
; and one covering the area of the former county of
Avon. This was partly offset by the abolition of one seat in each of the six
metropolitan counties
The metropolitan counties are a type of county-level administrative division of England. There are six metropolitan counties, which each cover large urban areas, with populations between 1 and 3 million. They were created in 1974 and are each di ...
of
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
,
Merseyside
Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
,
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...
,
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
,
West Midlands
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
and
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
, together with a net loss of one seat in
Greater London
Greater may refer to:
*Greatness, the state of being great
*Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality
*Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film
*Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record
*Greater (song), "Greate ...
.
London was reviewed borough-by-borough – some were "paired". This means they see one or more straddling seats. This solution ensures that the sizes of the electorates are not too
disparate, in other words, quite fairly apportioned to reflect the adult resident population. Two boroughs lost a seat and one area of central London gained a constituency.
The approved recommendations for the three countries saw a net increase of 4 seats from 646 to 650 (for the 2010 general election).
New and abolished constituencies
As a result of changes to the names of seats, it is not always easy to clearly identify newly created constituencies or those abolished during the review process. One way of considering this is to link each proposed seat with an existing seat which contributes the most voters to that new seat. Any proposed seat which cannot be linked to an existing seat is then considered to be a "new" constituency. Conversely, any existing seat which is not linked to a proposed seat is considered to have been abolished.
Accordingly, the following seats are regarded as new creations:
*
Central Devon
Central Devon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Mel Stride, a Conservative.
History
The constituency was created for the 2010 general election, following a review of parliamentary repr ...
*
Chelsea and Fulham
Chelsea and Fulham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation. It is currently represented by Greg Hands of the Conservative Party. He was the MP for the former neighbouring constituency ...
*
Chippenham
Chippenham is a market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village ...
*
Filton and Bradley Stoke
*
Kenilworth and Southam
*
Meon Valley
*
Mid Derbyshire
*
Mid Norfolk
Mid Norfolk is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2010 by George Freeman (po ...
(as reconfigured)
*
South Northamptonshire
South Northamptonshire was, from 1974 to 2021, a district in Northamptonshire, England. Its council was based in the town of Towcester, first established as a settlement in Roman Britain. The population of the Local Authority District Council in ...
*
St Austell and Newquay
*
Witham
Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Chelms ...
*
Wyre and Preston North
Wyre and Preston North is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Created in the most recent fifth periodic review of constituencies by the Boundary Commission for England, it elects one ...
NB - the existing seat of Mid Norfolk is succeeded by
Broadland
Broadland is a local government district in Norfolk, England, named after the Norfolk Broads. The population of the local authority district taken at the 2011 Census was 124,646. Its council is based in Thorpe St Andrew.
In 2013, Broadland wa ...
(see below) and the reconfigured Mid Norfolk is therefore considered to be a new constituency.
The following English constituencies are regarded as having been abolished by the review process:
*
Barnsley West and Penistone
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
*
Birmingham Selly Oak (existing configuration)
*
Brent East
*
Eccles
*
Hornchurch
Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed ...
*
Knowsley North and Sefton East
*
Normanton
*
Sunderland South
NB - the proposed constituency of Birmingham Selly Oak is preceded by the existing constituency of
Birmingham Hall Green
Birmingham Hall Green is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Birmingham, which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Tahir Ali of the Labour Party.
It has become in recent years a Labour sa ...
; and, in turn, the proposed constituency of Birmingham Hall Green is preceded by
Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath (see below).
Name changes
In England, there was a total of 72 linked constituencies which involved a change of name. A majority of these involved significant changes resulting from the knock-on impact of new or abolished seats within review areas. However, some arose from the consultation process and involved only minor changes. The table below lists those constituencies with name changes, indicating the extent of the changes by reference to the proportion of the old constituency included in the new constituency, or the proportion of the new in the old, which ever is the lesser:
* Minor - greater than 90%
* Moderate - between 75% and 90%
* Major - between 75% and 50%
* Wholesale - less than 50%
Other major changes
In addition to the changes listed above, the following 45 constituencies were subject to major changes whilst retaining their names.
See also
*
Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies
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 reviewe ...
*
List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
The Parliament of the United Kingdom currently has 650 parliamentary constituencies across the constituent countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), each electing a single member of parliament (MP) to the House of Commons by ...
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fifth Periodical Report Boundary Commission for England, . Contains list of boundary changes in England.
Fifth Periodical Report Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland, . Contains list of boundary changes in Northern Ireland.
Fifth Periodical Report Boundary Commission for Scotland, . Contains list of boundary changes in Scotland
Fifth Periodical Report Boundary Commission for Wales, . Contains list of boundary changes in Wales.
{{Periodic Reviews of Westminster constituencies
2010 United Kingdom general election
2005 United Kingdom general election
5
2000s in the United Kingdom
2005 in British politics
2010 in British politics