(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order designates regional returning officers for the purposes of elections to the Scottish Parliament. It also designates constituency returning officers for those purposes, for constituencies situated in more than one local authority area. For constituencies that are wholly situated in one local authority area, the constituency returning officer is the person who is the returning officer at elections of councillors for that local authority.
Paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Scotland Act 1998 provides for there to be eight regions for the purposes of the Act and for seven regional members to be returned for each region. The regions are those specified in the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies and Regions) Order 2014 (S.I. 2014/501). There are 73 constituencies, which are those specified in that Order and the constituencies of the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands (which are provided for by Schedule 1 to the Scotland Act 1998).
Article 3 designates regional returning officers for each region. Regional returning officers perform functions, conferred by or under the 1998 Act, in relation to the election and return of regional members of the Scottish Parliament.
Article 4 designates constituency returning officers for the Scottish Parliament constituencies specified in Schedule 2. Constituency returning officers perform functions, conferred by S.S.I. 2015/425, in relation to the election and return of members of the Scottish Parliament.
Article 5 revokes the previous Order which designated constituency returning officers for the constituencies specified in Schedule 2. The previous Order which designated regional returning officers has been revoked, with savings, by the Scottish Parliament (Regional Returning Officers) (Revocation) Order 2015 (S.I. 2015/743).
A full list of Scottish Parliament constituencies and their constituency returning officers is included in the policy note which accompanies this Order.