Representation of the People Act 1949

United Kingdom legislation

Representation of the People Act 1949Act of Parliament

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 by| Representation 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Repealed by| Representation of the People Act 1983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Status: Repealed

United Kingdom legislation

Representation of the People (Amendment) Act 1958

Act of Parliament

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
Amends| Representation 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Repealed by| Representation of the People Act 1969

Status: Repealed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 Representation of the People amendments followed in 1969, 1977, 1978, and 1980, all being repealed through consolidation into the Representation of the People Act 1983.

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

[edit]

* Reform Acts
* Representation of the People Act

## References

[edit]

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

[edit]

* D. J. Rossiter, Ronald John Johnston, C. J. Pattie, "The Boundary Commissions: redrawing the UK's map of parliamentary constituencies", Manchester University Press, 1999, p. 87–90.

## External links

[edit]

* Representation of the People Act, 1949 (full text)

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Electoral reform in the United Kingdom

Representation of
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| Reform Acts|

* England and Wales, 1832
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Municipal Reform|

* Scotland, 1833
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Constituency reform|

* Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832
* Parliamentary Boundaries (Ireland) Act 1832
* Redistribution of Seats Act 1885
* Redistribution of Seats (Ireland) Act 1918
* Government of Ireland Act 1920
* House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1944
* House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949
* Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986
* Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011
* Parliamentary Constituencies Act 2020

Other related Acts|

* Parliamentary Elections Act 1868
* Ballot Act 1872
* Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act 1883
* European Assembly Elections Act 1978 (repealed)
* Registration of Political Parties Act 1998
* European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 (repealed)
* Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000
* Electoral Administration Act 2006
* Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (repealed)
* Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013
* Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
* Elections Act 2022

Related topics|

* Chartism
* Unreformed House of Commons
* Rotten and pocket boroughs
* University constituency
* Women's suffrage
* Wales
* Historiography
* 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum
* Elections in the United Kingdom
* Corrupt practices
* Boundary commissions
* Parliament in the Making
* Parliamentary franchise (1885–1918)

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