St Andrews - Governance

Governance

Further information: History of local government in Scotland

St Andrews is represented by several tiers of elected government. St Andrews Community Council form the lowest tier of governance whose statutory role is to communicate local opinion to local and central government. Fife Council, the unitary local authority for St Andrews, based in Glenrothes is the executive, deliberative and legislative body responsible for local governance. The Scottish Parliament is responsible for devolved matters such as education, health and justice while reserved matters are dealt with by the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The first parliament to take place in the town was in 1304, when King Edward I came to be received by Bishop William de Lamberton as overlordship of Scotland. As many as 130 landowners turned up to witness the event ranging from Sir John of Combo to Sir William Murray of Fort. In the early days of the union of 1707, St Andrews elected one member of parliament along with Cupar, Perth, Dundee and Forfar. The first elected parliament was introduced on 17 November 1713 as St Andrews Burgh, which merged with Anstruther, the result of a reform bill in 1832. The act of reformation seats in 1855, would find one MP sitting for St Andrews Burgh (which would include Anstruther Easter, Anstruther Wester, Crail, Cupar, Kilrenny and Pittemweem). Prior to 1975 the town was governed by a council, provost and baillies. In 1975, St Andrews came under Fife Regional Council and North East Fife District Council. The latter was abolished when a single-tier authority was introduced in 1996 as Fife Council based in Glenrothes.

St Andrews forms part of the North East Fife constituency, electing one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system. The constituency is represented by Sir Menzies Campbell, MP of the Liberal Democrats. For the purposes of the Scottish Parliament, St Andrews forms part of the North East Fife constituency. The North East Fife Scottish Parliament (or Holyrood) constituency created in 1999 is one of nine within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region. Each constituency elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post system of election, and the region elects seven additional members to produce a form of proportional representation. The seat was won at the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections by Roderick Campbell, for the SNP.

At EU level, St Andrews is part of the pan-Scotland European Parliament constituency which elects seven Members of the European Parliament (MEP)s using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. Scotland returns two Labour MEPs, two SNP MEPs, one Conservative and Unionist MEP and one Liberal Democrat MEP, to the European Parliament.