Senedd Cymru constituencies and electoral regions
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The Senedd constituencies and electoral regions () are the electoral districts used to elect Members of the Senedd (MS; cy, Aelodau'r Senedd or AS) to the
Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...
(Welsh Parliament; ), and have been used in some form since the first election of the then ''National Assembly for Wales''
in 1999 ''In 1999'' is a 1912 one-act comedic short play by William C. deMille, originally produced by Jesse L. Lasky, that was popular upon its release. Its gags are based on a future where gender roles are reversed. Production The piece debuted at th ...
. New boundaries were introduced for the
2007 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2007. * Electoral calendar 2007 * Elections in 2007 * 2007 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress * 2007 Algerian legislative el ...
and currently consist of forty constituencies and five regions. The five electoral regions are:
Mid and West Wales Mid and West Wales or Mid and South West Wales refers to an ambiguous region of Wales that is sometimes used, consisting broadly of the preserved counties of Dyfed and Powys, sometimes Swansea and sometimes parts of Gwynedd. It is also used ...
, North Wales, South Wales Central,
South Wales East South Wales East () is an electoral region of the Senedd, consisting of eight constituencies. The region elects 12 members, eight directly elected constituency members and four additional members. The electoral region was first used in 1999, wh ...
, and South Wales West, with the forty constituencies listed below. Voting last took place in all districts in the
2021 Senedd election 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
, and are not used for local government. The constituencies were created through the Government of Wales Act 1998, with the boundaries of the
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom ( Westminster), as they were in 1999. The new boundaries were also used for 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 ...
. Therefore, between the 2007 Assembly election and the 2010 United Kingdom general election, the two sets of constituencies, Assembly and Westminster, had differing boundaries. The
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 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 ele ...
, unlinked the two sets of constituencies, meaning any changes to one set, no longer affects the other. This has allowed for differing proposals for constituencies in Wales, with separate proposals for an increase in Senedd constituencies and a decrease in UK Parliament constituencies in Wales. Senedd constituencies are grouped into electoral regions consisting of between seven and nine constituencies. An additional member system is used to elect four additional Members of the Senedd from each region, in addition to the MSs elected by the constituencies. The Electoral Regions boundaries were based upon the pre-1999
European Parliament constituencies Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected by the population of the member states of the European Union (EU). The European Electoral Act 2002 allows member states the choice to allocate electoral subdivisions or constituencies (, ...
. At each
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
of the Senedd, each elector has two votes, one constituency vote and one regional party-list vote. Each constituency elects one Member by the first past the post (single-member district plurality, SMDP) system, and the additional Senedd seats are filled from regional closed party lists, under the D'Hondt method, with constituency results being taken into account, to produce a degree of proportional representation for each region. Altogether, the sixty Members of the Senedd are elected from the forty constituencies and five electoral regions, creating a Senedd of forty constituency MSs and twenty additional MSs. Every
constituent Constituent or constituency may refer to: Politics * An individual voter within an electoral district, state, community, or organization * Advocacy group or constituency * Constituent assembly * Constituencies of Namibia Other meanings * Const ...
is represented by one constituency member and four regional members.


History


Establishment

Following the
1997 Welsh devolution referendum The Welsh devolution referendum of 1997 was a pre-legislative referendum held in Wales on 18 September 1997 over whether there was support for the creation of a National Assembly for Wales, and therefore a degree of self-government. The refere ...
, where a narrow majority voted in support for the creation of a devolved Welsh Assembly, constituencies of the devolved legislature were established. Section 2 of the Government of Wales Act 1998 stipulates that the constituencies for the National Assembly for Wales be the same as the constituencies used for elections to the United Kingdom Parliament. The same act sets out the creation of five regions which would use the same borders as the five European Parliamentary constituencies in Wales which themselves were set out in the European Parliamentary Constituencies (Wales) Order 1994, used for elections to the European Parliament between
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
and
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
. The electoral regions set out are still used, despite the abolishment of the five European Parliamentary constituencies for a all-Wales constituency, and the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. Although minor border adjustments to the regions have taken place.


Change in boundaries

In 2006, the Government of Wales Act 2006 was enacted. When enacted the act reinforced the link between Assembly and UK Parliamentary constituencies, and that the number of electoral regions is five. The Parliamentary Constituencies and Assembly Electoral Regions (Wales) Order 2006 defined the new borders for the constituencies and electoral regions. The order detailed the abolition of three constituencies ( Caernarfon, Conwy, and Meironnydd Nant Conwy), with three new constituencies to replace them ( Aberconwy, Arfon, and Dwyfor Meirionnydd). Nine constituencies were subject to "substantial" border adjustments involving the transfer of more than 3,000 inhabitants between constituencies. A further eight constituencies were subject to boundary changes resulting in the redistribution of fewer than 3,000 inhabitants between each constituency, and a further four constituencies were subject to minor boundary adjustments that led to minimal transfers of inhabitants between constituencies. The remaining sixteen constituencies were not subject to any boundary or name modifications. The three new constituencies straddled the border of the electoral regions of
Mid and West Wales Mid and West Wales or Mid and South West Wales refers to an ambiguous region of Wales that is sometimes used, consisting broadly of the preserved counties of Dyfed and Powys, sometimes Swansea and sometimes parts of Gwynedd. It is also used ...
and North Wales, leading to adjustments in the boundaries of both electoral regions, in addition to minor adjustments to the constituency of Montgomeryshire also leading to minor regional boundary adjustments. In
south Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
, the boundaries of the electoral regions, South Wales West, and South Wales Central were altered to accommodate changes to the boundaries of Bridgend, and Vale of Glamorgan constituencies. The changes in the boundaries for constituencies and electoral regions of the Senedd came into force for the
2007 National Assembly for Wales election The 2007 National Assembly for Wales election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Senedd, National Assembly for Wales. It was the third general election. On the same day local elections in England and Scotland, as well as the ...
.


Delinking from UK parliament constituencies

Section 13(1) of the
Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 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 ele ...
states that: This details that any further changes to the UK Parliament constituencies in Wales specified in the act (notably the proposed reduction in constituencies to 30) will not be applied to Assembly (Senedd) constituencies. In a session of the House of Commons where the then secretary of state for Wales, Cheryl Gillian was questioned on the Labour party's opposition to the decoupling of the two constituencies, she replied:


Re-naming

On 6 May 2020, the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020 came into force, renaming the Assembly constituencies and Assembly electoral regions of the National Assembly for Wales, to the Senedd constituencies and Senedd electoral regions of " Senedd Cymru" or "the Welsh Parliament", known in both
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
and English as the
Senedd The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...
.


Constituencies

Wales is made up of 40 constituencies for
elections to the Senedd This is a list of elections to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ; formerly the National Assembly of Wales until May 2020), the devolved legislature of Wales. These elections have been held regularly since its establishment in 1999. The elections we ...
, the constituencies are currently the same but are not linked to those used for elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, with each constituency containing a population of around 60,000. The borders of each constituencies are drawn using Local government boundaries, defined in Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 as "the boundaries of counties, county boroughs, electoral divisions, communities and community wards".


Boundary responsibility

The Boundary Commission for Wales, a non-departmental public body, is responsible for proposing alterations to the boundaries of UK parliamentary constituencies in Wales, and reports proposals to the UK Government. Boundaries of Senedd constituencies and electoral regions are currently not overseen by any statutory review body, following the delinking of Senedd and UK Parliament constituencies in 2011, although the current configurations of both constituencies share the same boundaries (only the Senedd has electoral regions). Organisations such as the Electoral Reform Society Cymru have indicated a preference for coterminosity (meaning the mirroring of Senedd seat boundaries in Wales along the lines of the 2016 proposed reforms to the Welsh seats in the UK Parliament), however, such coterminosity is merely desired and is not enforced by law, meaning any changes to UK parliamentary constituencies in Wales do not necessarily need to be mirrored with the same changes for Senedd constituencies. If the differing proposals to constituencies in Wales, the proposed reduction of UK parliamentary constituencies and a proposed increase in Senedd constituencies in Wales are followed through, full coterminosity would be impossible. On 8 September 2021, a draft proposal of new UK parliamentary constituencies, reducing to 32, was published, with no plans to pass these changes to Senedd Constituencies, meaning the next UK general election may use different constituencies to the
next Senedd election The next Senedd election is due to be held in or before May 2026 to elect 60 members to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament; ). It will be the seventh devolved general election since the Senedd (formerly the National Assembly for Wales) was establish ...
, once more.


Current constituencies


Former constituencies

Between the first election in
1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...
for the then National Assembly for Wales, to the 2007 election, there were three former constituencies. These constituencies were replaced at the 2007 election, with new boundaries and names. Three constituency names, Conwy, Caernarfon, and Meirionydd Nant Conwy, have become historic, and the new boundaries define three constituencies with new names: Arfon, Dwyfor Meirionnydd, and Aberconwy. Generally, the new boundaries define each constituency taking into account local government ward boundaries, and define constituencies close to equal in terms of the sizes of their electorates.


Electoral regions

Wales is organised into five electoral regions for elections to the Senedd. Each region contains between 7 and 9 constituencies within them. Each region elects four additional members of the Senedd and roughly contains 500,000 people.


See also

* Boundary Commission for Wales


Notes


References


External links


List of Members
at the Senedd website {{DEFAULTSORT:National Assembly For Wales Constituencies And Electoral Regions National Assembly for Wales Senedd electoral regions Senedd constituencies and electoral regions