Reviews of polling districts, polling places and polling stations

The Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986 states: ‘There shall for the purpose of parliamentary elections be the county and borough constituencies (or in Scotland the county and burgh constituencies), each returning a single member, which are described in Orders in Council made under this Act. […] In this Act and, except where the context otherwise requires, in any Act passed after the Representation of the People Act 1948, “constituency” means an area having separate representation in the House of Commons.1 ’

UK Parliamentary constituency boundaries cannot be changed by the review.

A polling district is a geographical area created by the sub-division of a UK Parliamentary constituency for the purposes of a UK Parliamentary election.

In England, each parish is to be a separate polling district and, in Wales, each community should be a separate polling district unless there are special circumstances. This means that a parish or community must not be in a polling district which has a part of either a different parish or community within it, or any un-parished part of the local authority area within it, unless special circumstances apply. Those special circumstances could arise if, for example, the parish/community has only a small number of electors and it is not practicable for the parish to be its own polling district.

In Scotland, each electoral ward must be divided into two or more polling districts unless there are special circumstances. Given the size of wards in Scotland, it is difficult to envisage what those special circumstances might be in practice.

When a parish or community is not a separate polling district or a Scottish electoral ward is not split into two or more polling districts, the special circumstances and the recommendation resulting from these should be clearly set in the review document for the council or relevant committee to consider.

A polling place is the building or area in which polling stations will be selected by the (A)RO. A polling place within a polling district must be designated so that polling stations are within easy reach of all electors from across the polling district.

We are aware that some authorities designate the entire polling district as the polling place. However the legislation states that ‘the polling place must be small enough to indicate to electors in different parts of the district how they will be able to reach the polling station'.2  

We therefore consider that polling places should always be defined more specifically than simply the polling district - for example, by designating the name of the polling place (normally a particular building or area and its environs).