The Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 2 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2021

Scottish Statutory Instruments

2021 No. 124 (C. 8)

Representation Of The People

The Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 2 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2021

Made

8th March 2021

Laid before the Scottish Parliament

10th March 2021

Coming into force

14th May 2021

The Scottish Ministers make the following Regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 35(2) and (3) of the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020(1).

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 2 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2021 and come into force on 14 May 2021.

(2) In these Regulations—

“the 1973 Act” means the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973(2),

“the 2020 Act” means the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020.

Appointed Day

2.  14 May 2021 is the day appointed for the coming into force of the provisions of the 2020 Act specified in column 1 of the table in the schedule (the subject matter of which is specified in column 2 of that table).

Saving Provision

3.—(1) This Regulation applies to an order made under section 17 of the 1973 Act which—

(a) was made prior to the commencement of section 31 of the 2020 Act, and

(b) remained in force immediately before the commencement of section 31 of the 2020 Act.

(2) An order to which this Regulation applies remains in force despite the substitution of section 17 of the 1973 Act by section 31 of the 2020 Act.

GRAEME DEY

Authorised to sign by the Scottish Ministers

St Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

8th March 2021

Regulation 2

SCHEDULE

Table

Column 1 Provisions of the 2020 Act	Column 2 Subject Matter
Section 2	Dates of Scottish local government elections
Section 4	Electoral wards: number of councillors
Section 28	Boundaries Scotland
Section 29	Reviews of local government wards and number of councillors
Section 30	Changes to boundaries of parliamentary constituencies: procedure
Section 31	Changes to local government areas or electoral arrangements: procedure
Section 32	Scottish Parliament constituency boundaries: timing of first report
Section 33	Publishing of proposals affecting Scottish Parliament constituencies
Schedule	Boundaries Scotland: modification of enactments

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations bring into force sections 2, 4 and 28 to 33 of the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 (“the Act”), together with the Schedule of the Act, on 14 May 2021.

Section 2 of the Act includes provision for Scottish local government elections to be held every five years. Section 4 of the Act includes provision that local government electoral wards can comprise between 2 and 5 councillors. Sections 28 to 33 of the Act re-name the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland as Boundaries Scotland and confer powers on Boundaries Scotland to make proposals in relation to electoral areas and arrangements. The Scottish Ministers are then obliged to give effect to those proposals. Sections 28 to 33 also make a number of associated procedural changes. The Schedule of the Act makes a number of consequential amendments to various enactments.

The Bill for the Act received Royal Assent on 8 July 2020. Part 5 of the Act came into force on the following day.

NOTE AS TO EARLIER COMMENCEMENT REGULATIONS

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The following provisions of the Act have been brought into force by commencement regulations made before the date of these Regulations.

Provision	Date of Commencement	Instrument number
Section 1	1 October 2020	2020/278
Section 3	1 October 2020	2020/278
Sections 6 to 9	1 October 2020	2020/278
Section 11	1 October 2020	2020/278
Section 13 to 19	1 October 2020	2020/278
Sections 22 to 27	1 October 2020	2020/278

(1)

2020 asp 12.

(2)

1973 c.65.