Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020
Act of the Scottish Parliament
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 (asp 12) is an act of the Scottish Parliament which made several reforms to local government and elections in Scotland.
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| Act of the Scottish Parliament | |
| |
| Long title | An Act of the Scottish Parliament to reform certain aspects of the law relating to Scottish parliamentary and local government elections, including length of terms; to make provision about the role of the Electoral Commission in relation to those elections; to confer functions on the Electoral Management Board for Scotland in relation to Scottish parliamentary elections; to rename and make provision about the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland; and for connected purposes. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 2020 asp 21 |
| Introduced by | Graeme Dey MSP, Minister for Parliamentary Business and Veterans |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 8 July 2020 |
| Commencement | various[b] |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends |
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Status: Current legislation | |
| History of passage through the Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
| Text of the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |
Legislative passage
During the legislative passage, the issue of ballot order effect was discussed.[1]
Provisions
The legislation allows 14 and 15 year olds to register to vote ahead of actually being able to vote.[2]
The length of the term of the Scottish Parliament elections and Scottish local government elections is set to 5 years under the legislation rather than 4 years as was previously the case.[3][4] This meant the next Scottish Parliament election after the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.[3]
The legislation introduces flexibility in the number of councillors for a ward so that wards can be represented by 2 or 5 councillors rather than only 3 or 4 councillors.[5]