We are a public body which is responsible for reviewing and making recommendations for ward and local authority boundaries for Scotland. We are also responsible for determining boundaries of Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions. Our job is defined by the law surrounding our work.
We are made up of a Chair, Deputy Chair and up to 4 other Commissioners. There are details of who the Commissioners are on the website. We are supported by a Secretariat made up of a small number of staff.
We are funded by the Scottish Government.
We only work in Scotland. There are similar Commissions for England, for Wales and for Northern Ireland.
The Boundary Commission for Scotland is a separate body which is responsible for reviewing UK Parliament constituency boundaries in Scotland. Full details are available on the Boundary Commission for Scotland website. The Secretariat supports both Commissions, and so the address and phone numbers for both Commissions are the same.
We follow the Scottish Government's complaints procedure which is explained on the Scottish Government website at Make a complaint - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), which sets out the process for making a complaint.
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:
