Boundaries Scotland Response Draft Report to Cross-Party Working Group v2
Renfrewshire Council · 23 October 2024
Back to Cross Party Sounding Board — 23 October 2024 and its agenda
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___________________________________________________________________ To: Cross Party Sounding Board On: 23 October 2024 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Chief Executive ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Second Review of Scottish Parliamentary Boundaries – Publication of Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 Boundaries Scotland has published Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries for the Scottish Parliament. 1.2 The proposals were reported verbally by the Head of Corporate Governance to the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 26 September 2024 and it was agreed that authority would be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with this Board, to submit a response to the public consultation on behalf of the Council. A copy of the proposed response is appended to this report. ___________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 That the proposed response to Boundaries Scotland’s Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries for the Scottish Parliament, appended to this report, be considered; and
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2.2 That it be noted that the Chief Executive will submit the Council’s response by the public consultation deadline of 26 October 2024. _________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1 Boundaries Scotland published its Provisional Proposals for Scottish Parliament constituencies in May 2023 and following the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 22 June 2023 a response was submitted to Boundaries Scotland which, amongst other things, called for a Local Inquiry to allow the Council to make a case for the proposals to be re- examined, especially in relation to the constituency design approach. The response set out that it was also apparent that a number of the proposals ran contrary to the rules Boundaries Scotland were required to follow when conducting reviews of Scottish Parliament boundaries: take account of council area boundaries. create constituencies and regions that have broadly the same number of electors take account of special geographical considerations (including in particular the size, shape and accessibility of a constituency or region). take account of local ties and other inconveniences caused by changes to constituencies. 3.2 The constituency design approach saw Renfrewshire included in a grouping with East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and Glasgow City Councils. The proposal resulted in 12 constituencies wholly within these Council areas. It then followed that this grouping would lose one seat. The Council response argued that this approach was difficult to understand and had no basis in the legislative position or the rules set out for such a review. 3.3 Furthermore, and crucially, this approach to the proposals wholly ignored the impact of the region review, which would set out which constituencies would fall into each region, and this issue of concern is detailed later in this report as the current Further Proposals are reviewed. 3.4 The Local Inquiry sat at the Lynnhurst Hotel, Johnstone on 14 December 2023. The Head of Corporate Governance spoke at the Local Inquiry and set out the Council’s position on Boundaries Scotland’s proposals.
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3.5 Boundaries Scotland’s Revised Proposals were published on 16 April 2024. The revised proposals in respect of the Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituency boundaries were an improvement compared to the initial proposals. However further issues were highlighted and submitted to Boundaries Scotland relative to the new Erskine and Cardonald constituency as follows:- 3.5.1 The first issue related to the proposed constituency’s boundaries, specifically the proposal to include part of Glasgow’s Ward 5 (Govan) within the boundaries. The area in question, Shieldhall contained an electorate of only 1,161 and it was suggested that given traditional links Glasgow Govan Ward 5 should remain intact within the proposed Glasgow Central constituency and that the Erskine and Cardonald Constituency should only contain that part of Cardonald which had already been included in the boundary for the new Paisley and Renfrewshire North UK Parliamentary boundary. 3.5.2 The second issue relative to the proposed new Erskine and Cardonald Constituency related to its title and specifically to the exclusion of the Royal Burgh of Renfrew from the title. 3.6 Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries were published by Boundaries Scotland on 26 September 2024, and given the date of publication, the same day as the meeting of Renfrewshire Council, a verbal report was provided at that meeting by the Head of Corporate Governance. 3.7 In terms of the Further Proposals for constituencies, Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald was one of six Scottish constituencies to have both a new name and new boundaries. 3.8 In relation to boundary changes: the boundary between the proposed Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituencies has been amended to include the Phoenix Retail Park within the Paisley constituency area; the boundary between the proposed Eastwood and Renfrewshire West constituencies reverted to the existing Scottish Parliamentary boundary with the inclusion of Neilston in Renfrewshire West; the boundary between the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency and the Glasgow Central constituency has been amended with Shieldhall being retained within the Glasgow Central constituency; to address this imbalance in the electoral quota created by Neilston being included within the Renfrewshire West constituency, the boundary between the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald and
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the Renfrewshire West constituencies has been amended to include Bishopton within the Renfrewshire West constituency. 3.9 Boundaries Scotland has also published its Provisional Proposals for region boundaries. There are eight Scottish Parliament regions, each returning seven regional (list) MSPs. The rules governing the boundary setting process for regions state “a constituency must fall wholly within a region” and “the regional electorate must be as near the regional electorate of each of the other regions as is practicable, having regard (where appropriate) to special geographical considerations. 3.10 The Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries set out that the Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituencies will continue to form part of the West of Scotland region while the new Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency will form part of the Glasgow region. This means that while areas in the East end of Paisley will continue to be part of the West of Scotland region, areas of Renfrewshire to the West including Bishopton and Erskine will be represented by MSPs from the Glasgow region list. It also results in Ward 2 being split between two separate regions with Gallowhill lying in West Scotland but Renfrew in the Glasgow region. 3.11 As intimated in paragraph 3.5, the publication of the Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries came too late for a report to be submitted to Council. However, elected members heard a verbal report by the Head of Corporate Governance and the proposed response to the consultation, attached as an appendix to this report, includes the views expressed at the Council meeting by elected members. 3.12 The proposed response reiterates the view that Boundaries Scotland’s approach to constituency design is difficult to understand. The Council’s response to the first round of consultations on the Initial Proposals for constituencies recognised that the constituency designed approach wholly ignored the potential impact of the region review and was therefore fundamentally flawed. The response also highlights the difficulties which will be faced by the Returning Officer in terms of administering three constituencies, two of which will feed their region list vote totals to the West of Scotland region, which the Returning Officer already administers, and one constituency which will feed its region list votes to the Glasgow region Returning Officer. The response also covers off the views expressed by elected members at the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 26 September 2024 including the suggestion that, should the Commission continue with the current
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recommendations, the Council could seek a judicial review of the process underpinning the review. 3.13 At the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held on 26 September it was also agreed that authority be delegated to the Chief Executive to issue the response to the consultation on behalf of the Council, as well as on his own behalf in his capacity as Returning Officer, by the deadline of 26 October 2024. 3.14 After the consultation closes Boundaries Scotland will consider all responses received. If changes are made, to the Provisional Proposals for regions or the Further Proposals for constituencies, another one- month consultation will be held. A final report is expected to be submitted to Scottish Ministers by 1 May 2025. The new boundaries will be effective at the next Scottish Parliament election, timetabled for May 2026. _________________________________________________________________ Implications of the Report 1. Financial - none 2. HR & Organisational Development - none. 3. Community/Council Planning – none 4. Legal – as detailed in the report 5. Property/Assets - none 6. Information Technology - none 7. Equality & Human Rights (a) The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website. 8. Health & Safety - none
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9. Procurement - none. 10. Risk - none 11. Privacy Impact - none 12. Climate Risk - none 13. Children’s Rights - none. 14. Cosla Policy Position - none _______________________________________________________ List of Background Papers (a) Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries - Initial Proposals - Constituencies published May 2023 (b) Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries – Revised Proposals – Constituencies published April 2024 (c) Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries – Further Proposals – Constituencies and Provisional Proposals – Regions published 26 September 2024 All the foregoing can be found at Second Review of Scottish Parliament Boundaries | Scottish Boundary Commission (d) Report to meeting of Renfrewshire council held on 22 June 2023 “Second Review of Scottish Parliamentary Boundaries – Publication of Provisional Proposals for Constituencies” ___________________________________________________________________ Author: Mark Conaghan Mark.conaghan@renfrewshire.gov.uk Telephone: 0300 300 0287