We are required to review local authority areas periodically. The interval between reviews is set in legislation, and can be modified by Scottish Ministers. We will also consider any request that we receive to review a particular local authority area boundary. 

We are required to review electoral ward boundaries every 8 to 12 years. We can also carry out a review of ward boundaries at other times if the need arises.

The process that we follow for a review is largely defined by the law, and can be summarised as:

• we decide whether to conduct a review
• we form our proposals
• we inform the affected local councils of our proposals, and consider any response from those councils
• we publish the proposals for public consultation
• we consider all representations made, hold local inquiries and produce revised recommendations if necessary
• we submit our report to Scottish Ministers.

We are responsible for making recommendations “in the interests of effective and convenient local government” by means of alteration, constitution or abolition of a local government area, or by making changes in the electoral ward boundaries of a local government area.

As part of an electoral review of a local authority, we will make a recommendation on how many councillors there should be for that local authority. As with all of our recommendations, Scottish Ministers decide how to implement that recommendation.

The rules for designing wards are set out in the law, and include:

• the aim to produce wards where the electorate for each councillor is as close to the average as practical,
• the need to fix boundaries which are and will remain easily identifiable, 
• consideration of any local ties which would be broken by fixing any particular boundary, and
• following the introduction of the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 each ward can elect between 2 and 5 councillors. The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 additionally allows 1-member wards within those 6 council areas covered by the Act, where those wards contain inhabited islands.

Yes. The public consultation process is designed to allow everyone to express their view on our proposals, either for or against. You can do this by letter or email, or using our contact details given on each page of the website. Views in support of our proposals are as important as those against.

The Commission normally holds a Local Inquiry when it considered that it does not have sufficient information to reach an informed decision about a particular area.

Normally, the extent of a local government area ends at the low water mark. In a small number of cases, a local government area has been extended by legislation around a port or harbour into the surrounding sea beyond the low water mark. The largest of these seaward extensions is Yell Sound in the Shetland Islands, and there are also substantial extensions at Aberdeen and Greenock. We use the Ordnance Survey depiction of these seaward extensions.