Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832

Parliamentary Boundaries Act, 1832^{[nb 1]}

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	An Act to settle and describe the Divisions of Counties, and the Limits of Cities and Boroughs in England and Wales, in so far as respects the Election of Members to serve in Parliament.
Citation	2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 64
Dates
Royal assent	11 July 1832
Other legislation
Amended by	Statute Law Revision Act 1874
Repealed by	Statute Law Revision Act 1950
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the parliamentary divisions (constituencies) in England and Wales required by the Reform Act 1832. The boundaries were largely those recommended by a boundary commission headed by the surveyor Thomas Drummond.

Sections 1 to 25 of the Act defined the divisions of those larger counties of England which under the Reform Act were to be divided into two divisions. This did not include the seven counties which were to return three members each.^{[citation needed]}

Sections 26 and 27 and Schedule M dealt with detached parts of counties. It provided that most detached parts (identified in Schedule M) were to form part of the parliamentary county and division in which they were geographically located, rather than of the county to which they otherwise formed a part. Section 28 provided that liberties and other places with a separate jurisdiction (but not the counties corporate of Bristol, Exeter, Lichfield, Norwich, or Nottingham) were to be included in the county and division in which they were geographically located.^{[citation needed]}

Sections 29 to 34 prescribed polling districts and polling places within each constituency.^{[citation needed]}

Sections 35 to 37 and Schedule O defined the boundaries of each parliamentary borough. In ancient boroughs these replaced boundaries established by charter or prescription, often centuries out of date. The commissioners favoured rational boundaries, encompassing an urban centre with some suburban room for growth. However, some of the smaller boroughs to escape disfranchisement were given large rural tracts to increase the represented population.^{[citation needed]}

• List of constituencies enfranchised and disfranchised by the Reform Act 1832

• Salmon, Philip (2009). "Surveys: IX. The English Reform Legislation". In Fisher, D.R. (ed.). The House of Commons 1820–1832. The History of Parliament. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 31 July 2019 – via History of Parliament Online.
• Spychal, Martin (August 2017). "'One of the best men of business we had ever met': Thomas Drummond, the boundary commission and the 1832 Reform Act". Historical Research. 90 (249): 543–566. doi:10.1111/1468-2281.12180.

• Reports of Boundary Commissioners covering England and Wales :
  • Eight volumes on boroughs (text from HathiTrust)
  • One volume on county divisions (text from HathiTrust)
  • Zoomable map (from Vision of Britain) — links to high-resolution scans of the maps associated with the preceding nine volumes

• Text of the Act