County Constituencies and Borough Constituencies
House of Commons, Northern Ireland Assembly, Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly constituencies are designated as either county or borough constituencies, except that in Scotland the term burgh is used instead of borough. Borough constituencies are predominantly urban while county constituencies are predominantly rural. There is no definitive statutory criterion for the distinction; the Boundary Commission for England has stated that, "as a general principle, where constituencies contain more than a small rural element they should normally be designated as county constituencies. Otherwise they should be designated as borough constituencies."
Since the advent of universal suffrage, the differences between county and borough constituencies are slight. The returning officer in a county constituency is the high sheriff of the county; in a borough constituency it is the mayor or district council head. The spending limits for election campaigns are different in the two, the reasoning being that candidates in county constituencies tend to need to travel further.
| Elected body | Constituency type | |
|---|---|---|
| borough/burgh | county | |
| House of Commons | £7,150 + 5p per elector | £7,150 + 7p per elector |
| Northern Ireland Assembly | £5,483 + 4.6p per elector | £5,483 + 6.2p per elector |
| Scottish Parliament Welsh Assembly |
£5,761 + 4.8p per elector | £5,761 + 6.5p per elector |
For by-elections to any of these bodies, the limit in all constituencies is £100,000.
Read more about this topic: United Kingdom Constituencies
Famous quotes containing the word county:
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)