Representation of the People Act 1949

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Representation of the People Act 1949
Act of Parliament
Coat of arms of the United Kingdom (1901-1952).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to parliamentary and local government elections, corrupt and illegal practices and election petitions.
Citation 12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 68
Dates
Royal assent 24 November 1949
Other legislation
Amends Union with Scotland (Amendment) Act 1707
Repeals/revokes Parliamentary Elections (Returns) Act 1695
Amended byRepresentation of the People (Amendment) Act 1958
Repealed by Representation of the People Act 1983
Relates to House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949
Status: Repealed
Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 1958
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title An Act to repeal section eighty-eight of the Representation of the People Act, 1949.
Citation 7 & 8 Eliz. 2. c. 9
Dates
Royal assent 18 December 1958
Other legislation
AmendsRepresentation of the People Act 1949
Repealed by Representation of the People Act 1969
Status: Repealed

The Representation of the People Act 1949 (12, 13 & 14 Geo. 6. c. 68) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act consolidated previous electoral law, but also made some changes to administration. Representation of the People amendments followed in 1969, 1977, 1978, and 1980, all being repealed through consolidation into the Representation of the People Act 1983.

Contents

The principal change was to provide for the conduct of future reviews of parliamentary boundaries by the permanent Parliamentary Boundary Commissions. The act also abolished the terms 'parliamentary borough' and 'parliamentary county', renaming them 'borough constituency' and 'county constituency', abolished the university constituencies, and removed a requirement that the City of London form its own constituency. The Boundary Commissions were instructed to review all boundaries within 3–7 years from the act coming into force, and thereafter to review the boundaries periodically.[ citation needed ]

In addition the act made some changes to the franchise, removing the remaining provisions allowing plural voting in parliamentary elections by people who owned business premises. (However, plural voting for local government elections continued until it was abolished, outside the City of London, by the Representation of the People Act 1969. [1] [2] It still exists in the City of London – see City of London Corporation elections). From this point forward, there was a single electoral register for both local government and Parliamentary elections and each voter was only allowed to vote once in any general election even if they happened to be registered in more than one address for local elections.[ citation needed ]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Halsey, Albert Henry (1988). British Social Trends since 1900. Springer. p. 298. ISBN   9781349194667.
  2. ↑ Peter Brooke (24 February 1999). "City of London (Ward Elections) Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 452.

Bibliography

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