We are a public body which is responsible for determining UK Parliament constituency boundaries in Scotland. We are funded through the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Boundaries Scotland (formerly Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland) is a separate body which is responsible for reviewing electoral ward, local authority area boundaries and since May 2017 Scottish Parliament boundaries.
The rules for constituencies require that there should be similar numbers of voters in each constituency, and that constituency boundaries should take account of local authority boundaries. Since the population in different parts of Scotland changes over time, and also local government boundaries change, constituency boundaries have to be reviewed to reflect those changes.
If you have a complaint about our work, please discuss it with us. If after doing so you remain dissatisfied, you should ask your MP to send your complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which is the public body responsible for investigating complaints against public bodies answerable to the United Kingdom Parliament, including the Commission.
We do not hold current electorate figures for constituencies. These can be obtained from the relevant page of the National Records of Scotland website.
For the Scottish Parliament, the number of constituencies is fixed by legislation as 73. For the UK Parliament, the law is different, and there are currently 59 constituencies. Since the numbers of constituencies are so different, the 2 sets of constituencies are unrelated to each other.
We review UK Parliament constituencies every 5 years. After our 2023 Review, reviews will be conducted every 8 years.
The law requires us to use the number of people whose names appear on the electoral register. This definition includes those on the register who will become 18 while the register is in force – these people are known as attainers. Find out how to check whether you're registered to vote, how to register to vote and the differences between the parliamentary electorate and local government electorate at www.electoralcommission.org.uk.
Yes. The law specifies that the electorate of each constituency, with a few specified exceptions, has to be within 5% of the United Kingdom electoral quota, which is the average electorate of mainland constituencies. The exceptions that can affect Scotland are that any constituency exceeding 12,000 square kilometres, and the constituencies covering Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands council areas, can have a smaller electorate.
The law only tells us to use the electorate at the start of a review.