Consultation starts on revised boundaries for Scottish seats at Westminster

Revised proposals have been published for Scottish constituencies in the House of Commons, as a shake-up there is to reduce the number of seats north of the border.

Scotland will have 57 constituencies under this latest review by the Boundary Commission, two fewer than at present.

Meanwhile, England has been allocated 543 seats – a rise of 10, while in Northern Ireland the number of constituencies remains unchanged at 18, and Wales is to lose eight, leaving it with 32 MP – keeping the total of 650 MPs at Westminster.

Two Scottish constituencies: the Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland, are protected by legislation and therefore can not be changed.

The remaining 55 seats must have between 69,724 and 77,062 voters, unless they are larger than 12,000 square kilometres, where a smaller number is allowed.

But constituencies are also not allowed to exceed the maximum permitted area of 13,000 square kilometres.

Of the 55 mainland constituencies 20 are unchanged from those put forward in the initial proposals.

However, three constituencies have had their proposed name changed; 35 have had their boundaries changed; and 20 have had both their proposed name and boundaries altered in the revised proposals.

The changes will see the proposed Inverness-shire and Wester Ross seat become the largest constituency in terms of area, measuring in at 11,066 square kilometres – smaller than the current Ross, Skye and Lochaber which is 12,678 square kilometres.

The smallest constituency in terms of area will be Glasgow West, which is just 19 square kilometres – with this larger than the smallest existing seat, Glasgow North, which is 17 square kilometres.

The changes could see Glasgow South East become the seat with fewest voters, with the proposed constituency having 69,748 electors – 20,000-plus electors more than the 46,924 in Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is currently the seat with fewest voters.

Clackmannanshire and Forth Valley would be the seat with most voters under the revised plans, with 77,046 electors living within its boundaries – less than the 88,506 living with the current Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency.

A four-week long public consultation on the revised proposals will run until Monday, December 5 , with the Commission to develop its final recommendations after this, before submitting a report to the Speaker of the House of Commons by July 1 2023.

Lord Matthews, deputy chair of the Boundary Commission for Scotland, said they were “grateful” for the responses to previous consultations.

He said: “We have considered all representations very carefully and, where possible, have tried to respond positively to suggestions.

“The legislative requirements of the review do mean we are not always able to incorporate alternatives and sometimes, of course, we receive conflicting views or suggestions with unintended consequences for other parts of Scotland.

“We very much look forward to receiving views on the revised proposals after which we will finalise our proposals before submitting them to the Speaker of the House of Commons by July 1 next year.”