Scottish Westminster constituencies

rdf:langString Scottish Westminster constituencies

rdf:langString Scottish Westminster constituencies were Scottish constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain, normally at the Palace of Westminster, from 1708 to 1801, and have been constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, also at Westminster, since 1801. Constituency boundaries have changed on various occasions, and are now subject to both periodical and ad hoc reviews of the Boundary Commission for Scotland. Since 1950 each Scottish constituency has been either a burgh constituency or a county constituency, defined by geographic boundaries and representing a seat for one Member of Parliament (MP). More historically there have been university constituencies and constituencies representing two or three parliamentary seats. Scottish local government counties and burghs were abolished in 1975. A burgh constituency is now one with a predominantly urban electorate, and a county constituency is one with more than a token rural electorate. Counties and burghs were replaced with two-tier regions and districts and unitary islands council areas, and the regions and districts were replaced with unitary council areas in 1996. The history of constituency boundaries can be divided into eleven distinct periods, as below, each starting with the date of a general election when a new set of boundaries was first used.