The Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland
The Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland is an advisory Non-departmental Public Body sponsored and funded by the Northern Ireland Office. It is an independent, non-political body constituted by the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 as amended. Full details of the legislation governing the work of the Commission are available on the Legislation page of this website.
The role of the Commission is to keep under continuous review the number, names and boundaries of the parliamentary constituencies into which Northern Ireland is divided and to make recommendations about these to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Reviews are carried out every 5 years.
The Commission is currently engaged in the 6th review of Westminster parliamentary constituency boundaries. The legislation provides that the number of constituencies in Northern Ireland is to reduce from 18 to 16 for the purposes of the next general election and the review has to be completed before 1st October 2013.
Provisional proposals for new parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland were announced on 13 September 2011. Provisional Proposals (PDF 280 KB).
Submissions received on our provisional proposals, and Transcripts of the public hearings about these proposals, were published on 31 January 2012. This was followed by a further 4 week consultation period, which ended on 27 February 2012. We will decide whether to make any amendments to our Provisional Proposals after considering all Submissions. Any resulting Revised Proposals will be published for a further 8 week public consultation period.
Further information on the role of the Commission and the current review can be found in the FAQ section
A leaflet (160kb - PDF) setting out the timeline for the review (PDF 160 KB) is also available.
