This is a list of the 646 previous constituencies of the United Kingdom parliament.
There are 650 in the 2010 election constituencies currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as at the 2005 general election. Each constituency is represented by a single Member of Parliament (MP).
Constituency boundaries are subject to regular review by the four independent Boundary Commissions, usually once every 10 to 15 years, to keep the electorate of each constituency as close to the national average as is reasonably possible. New constituencies may be created, or existing ones abolished, by these reviews.
Constituencies were long based on boroughs (burghs in Scotland) and counties. Today, constituencies in England are mostly subdivisions of local authorities, with each constituency comprising a number of whole wards. In Scotland, constituencies are subdivisions of council areas, and in Wales they are subdivisions of the preserved counties. Northern Ireland is reviewed as a whole, and constituency boundaries may cross all district borders.
In some cases, particularly in urban areas, two or more local government areas may be combined to form a single review area, so that particularly large or small constituencies are not created. For example, if two adjacent areas are entitled to 1.5 constituencies each, they may be combined and awarded three constituencies, rather than having two constituencies each, all of which would be well below the average constituency electorate.
The average constituency size is approximately 74,000 registered voters, but they vary in size from the smallest (Na h-Eileanan an Iar at 22,200 voters) to the largest (the Isle of Wight at approximately 110,000 voters). A constituency has no physical size restrictions.
The Parliament of 2001 contained representatives from 659 constituencies. Most of the current constituency boundaries were last reviewed in the early 1990s, and are therefore based on administrative boundaries prior to the last series of local government boundary changes. However, a Boundary Commission for Scotland review in February 2005 resulted in the reorganisation of most Scottish constituencies to adjust for the historic over-representation of Scotland. This reduced the number of constituencies in Scotland by 13, from 72 down to the current 59. The Parliament of 2005 therefore had 646 representatives. In the 2010 Election on 6 May 2010 the number of seats contested has increased from 646 to 650 as a result of boundary changes. Technically an absolute majority would require one party to win 326 seats, or else there would be a hung parliament.
| Contents | |
|---|---|
| 1 England | |
| 1.1 East Midlands | Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire |
| 1.2 East of England | Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk |
| 1.3 Greater London | North East, North West, South East, South West |
| 1.4 North East England | Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear |
| 1.5 North West England | Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside |
| 1.6 South East England | Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, West Sussex |
| 1.7 South West England | Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire |
| 1.8 West Midlands | Hereford and Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands |
| 1.9 Yorkshire and the Humber | Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire |
| 2 Northern Ireland | |
| 3 Scotland | |
| 4 Wales | |
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Derbyshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Leicestershire and Rutland.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Lincolnshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northamptonshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Nottinghamshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Bedfordshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cambridgeshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Essex.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Hertfordshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Norfolk.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Suffolk.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cleveland.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in County Durham.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northumberland.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Tyne and Wear.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cheshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cumbria.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater Manchester.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Lancashire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Merseyside.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Berkshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Buckinghamshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in East Sussex.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Hampshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Kent.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Oxfordshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Surrey.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in West Sussex.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Avon.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Cornwall.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Devon.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Dorset.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Gloucestershire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Somerset.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Wiltshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Shropshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Staffordshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Warwickshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county).
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Humberside.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in North Yorkshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in South Yorkshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in West Yorkshire.
See main article: List of Parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland.
See main article: Scottish Westminster constituencies from 2005.
The Fifth Periodical Review of the Boundary Commission for Scotland related the boundaries of new constituencies to those of Scottish local government council areas and to local government wards. Apart from a few minor adjustments, the council area boundaries dated from 1996 and the ward boundaries dated from 1999. Some council areas were grouped to form larger areas and, within these larger areas, some constituencies straddle council area boundaries.