Reviews in Progress
We conduct reviews of the external boundaries of local authority areas. These are conducted within the relevant legislation and Ministerial Directions to the Commission. Details of those requirements are on the Legislation page of the website. We are not currently undertaking any reviews of the external boundaries of council areas.
We expect to begin our Fifth General Reviews of local government electoral arrangements in Scotland in 2013, and to report on those reviews by 2016 so that the resulting wards are available for the local government elections in Scotland which are planned for 2017. As part of our preparations for those reviews, we have consulted on our approach to determining the appropriate number of councillors for each council area.
The Past Reviews section of this website contains information on past reviews which we have undertaken.
Stages of a Review
Before we decide to conduct a review, we will conduct an assessment of the local circumstances. We will only decide to carry out a review if in our judgement the circumstances require it. The steps for a review are set out in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973: the current text of the relevant sections of that Act is available on the Legislation section of this website.
The steps can be summarised as follows, and are illustrated in the flowchart below:
- Stage 1: We formally decide to proceed with a review.
- Stage 2: We consider options for boundary alignment and select our preferred option for our Initial Proposals.
- Stage 3: We inform the affected local authorities of our Initial Proposals. The local authorities have a two month period to make representations. After this period, we consider the representations made, and revise our proposals as we think appropriate to form our Provisional Proposals.
- Stage 4: We publish our Provisional Proposals for public consultation having consulted with the local authorities to determine suitable display points (such as council offices and libraries) and local newspapers. This period of public consultation normally lasts for 12 weeks.
- Stage 5: We consider all the representations received, and decide whether to issue Revised Recommendations for further public consultation, or whether to hold a Local Inquiry. A Local Inquiry would be held if we felt we needed to gather further information about the issues involved.
- Stage 6: After considering all the representations made, we revise our proposals as we think appropriate, and prepare our Final Recommendations and our report for Scottish Ministers.
When we submit our report to Scottish Ministers, we also publish it on our website, by distribution to local authorities and other interested parties, and through public display points such as libraries and council offices. After we have submitted our report, Scottish Ministers decide whether and how to implement the recommendations by submitting an Order to the Scottish Parliament.
