Cylchgronau Cymru

European constítuencies for WaJes? R.JJOHNSTON Department of Geography, University of Sheffield (Received July 1983) Abstract Constituencies for the British Parliament are redrawn at least once every fifteen years; those for British members of the European Assembly must then be redrawn as a consequence. Both redistricting exercises are done manually, using a series of vague guidelines laid down in the relevant Acts of Parliament. This paper illustrates the use of a computer-based information-processing system that could speed up part of the procedure, using as its example the definition of four European European Assembly constituencies for Wales. According to the European Assembly Act, 1978, the Boundary Commission for Wales was required to propose, to the Home Sec- retary for transmission to Parliament, a set of four constituencies for the election of Welsh representatives to the European Assembly. These constituencies, according to the Second Schedule to the Act, must be groupings of constituencies used for elections to the UK Parliament (called Westminster Constituencies here), and The electorate of any Assembly constituency in Great Britain shall be as near the electoral quota as is reasonably practicable having regard, where appropriate, to special geographical considerations. The electoral quota, to all intents and purposes, is the average num- ber of electors per European Assembly constituency. Because of the requirement that the European constituencies comprise groupings of Westminster constituencies, a consequence of the legislation is that any changes in the Westminster constituencies should be followed by a review of the European constituencies. Such changes were proposed by the Commission in early 1983, in a report that was accepted by Parliament in March of that year. The previous 36 Westminster constituencies were replaced by a new set of 38, and these were used for the British general election of 9 June 1983. The need for a consequent review of the European constituencies was realised. However, the next European elections were scheduled (in March of 1983) to take place in June 1984. In April 1983, the Commissions for England, Scotland and Wales informed the Home