Boundary Commissions in the UK are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constiuencies for elections to the Westminster (UK) Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.There are four boundary commissions in the United Kingdom: one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
There are four members of each Commission, of which three actually take part in meetings. The Speaker of the House of Commons is the ex officio
Chair of each Boundary Commission, though s/he takes no part in the
proceedings. The Deputy Chairman of a Commission, who presides over
Commission meetings, is always a Justice in a British court. The Boundary Commissions are required to apply a series of rules when designing constituencies. Boundary changes can have a significant effect on the results of elections,
but Boundary Commissions do not take any account of voting patterns in
their deliberations, or consider what the effect of their
recommendations on the outcome of an election will be. [For more detail see Wikipedia entry.]
The Commissions are currently established under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, most recently amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011.
The Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was launched on 4 March 2011 and would have resulted in 600 constituencies for the
United Kingdom Parliament: a reduction from the 650 constituencies that
existed for the General Election of 2010. The number of constituencies
in each of the 4 home countries is calculated in proportion to the
electorate using a formula set out in the legislation. For the Sixth
Review, the formula specified 502 constituencies in England, 16
constituencies in Northern Ireland, 52 constituencies in Scotland, and
30 constituencies in Wales.
In January 2013, parliament amended the legislation governing the
Sixth Review with the effect that the review was cancelled. Each
Commission is required to conduct subsequent reviews of all
constituencies in its part of the United Kingdom every 5 years. [Why?]
Source: Wikipedia entry
