PROVISIONAL new Scottish Parliament constituencies have been published after thousands of objections to the previous proposals.
Boundaries Scotland is conducting its second review of the constituencies and regions used to elect MSPs to Holyrood, and has now published a map of how Scotland’s 73 constituency areas could change.
READ MORE: New Scottish parliament constituencies – all the proposed changes mapped
The majority of the larger changes are in the central belt, due to more significant movements in population demographics – especially on the eastern side towards Edinburgh – and also the enfranchisement of 16-year-olds.
However, there are also changes proposed to areas in the north-east, Highlands, and central Scotland.
In total under the new proposals, compared to current Holyrood constituency boundaries:
- 27 remain completely unchanged, keeping both their name and borders. These include Orkney, Shetland, and Na h-Eileanan an Iar, which are protected under law and cannot change
- Two remain unchanged geographically but have new names (Fife North East and Airdrie, to distinguish from the Westminster constituencies of North East Fife and Airdrie and Shotts)
- 23 have newly drawn boundaries but the name has been retained
- 21 completely new constituencies are proposed, with new names and boundaries
The constituency proposals are drawn up with the aim of making each vote in Scotland count as close to equally as is practicable, Boundaries Scotland chair professor Ailsa Henderson told press at an event on Monday.
There must be 73 constituencies in Scotland. Three of those are the protected island ones, but the other 70 are subject to review.
To decide how many voters will be in each constituency, electoral – not population – figures from September 2022 are used. These said there were 4,250,563 voters in Scotland, 57,430 of whom were in the protected constituencies.
READ MORE: Scotland to lose two Westminster seats as final boundary changes review published
The remaining 4,193,133 voters were then divided by 70 to give a quota of 59,902 per constituency. When designing the boundaries, the true number of voters should be between 10% higher or lower than the quota.
However, exceptions exist and deviations may occur where “special geographic circumstances including size, shape, and accessibility of a constituency make a departure desirable”, Henderson said.
As such, under the new proposals, Argyll and Bute will have a significantly smaller electorate (49,535) than other constituencies – except the protected island ones – because of its unique geography and high number of island communities.
The largest constituency by number of voters will be Skye, Lochaber, and Badenoch, which will have an electorate of 67,236.
By area under the new proposals, Glasgow Kelvin will be replaced as Scotland’s smallest constituency (12km2) by Edinburgh Central (11km2).
Caithness, Sutherland, and Ross (below) will remain the largest constituency by area at 12,792km2.
The proposals are the second batch of the second constituency review, and come in response to around 3200 objections to the previous plans – the majority of which (2600) focused on the East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire and Glasgow City Council areas.
Boundaries Scotland chair Henderson said: "We were very pleased with the number of responses, as well as the quality of arguments and varied suggestions submitted during our first consultation.
“These have helped us to improve upon our provisional proposals and we have made changes to over two-thirds of the constituencies as a direct result of responses submitted during the consultation and at local inquiries.
“We think we have managed to address the vast majority of concerns while also following the rules as set out in legislation. We would now like to hear further views from the public on our revised proposals over the next month.
“Have we addressed the earlier concerns? Could we make further improvements? Have we got accurate names to describe new constituencies?
“ We strongly encourage people to make their views heard. We particularly want to hear suggestions for alternative boundaries that comply with the legislative requirements and for constituency names."
The final proposals have to be in place by May 1, 2025. The renewed regional list areas will be finalised only after the constituencies.
You can find maps showing the proposed new constituencies and the ones currently used at Holyrood here.
You can engage with the Boundaries Scotland consultation here.
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