Devolved Parliaments and Assemblies
The Boundary Commissions are also responsible for reviews of boundaries for devolved parliaments and assemblies.
The procedure for reviews of constituencies and regions for the Scottish Parliament is set down by the Scotland Act 1998. That Act specifies that there are 73 constituencies for the Scottish Parliament: the Orkney Islands, the Shetland Islands and 71 others. The Act also specifies that the constituencies are grouped into 8 regions to allow the return of list members elected by proportional representation to the Parliament. The Boundary Commission for Scotland conducted a review of these boundaries between 2007 and 2010, whose recommendations were implemented from 2011. Since the legislation requires different numbers of constituencies in Scotland for the United Kingdom Parliament and the Scottish Parliament, these 2 sets of areas do not fit together neatly.
The Government of Wales Act 2006 specified that the constituencies for the National Assembly for Wales were the same as those for the Westminster Parliament. The Act required the Boundary Commission for Wales to group the constituencies into electoral regions, to allow the return of list members elected by proportional representation to the Assembly. The Boundary Commission for Wales's Fifth General Review resulted in revised Assembly constituencies and electoral regions. The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 removed the link between Westminster constituencies and National Assembly for Wales constituencies: replacement legislation is expected in time for the National Assembly elections in 2015.
The Northern Ireland Assembly uses the same constituencies that are used for the United Kingdom Parliament, but there are six members rather than just one elected from each constituency.
Read more about this topic: Boundary Commissions (United Kingdom)
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