There were no Declarations of Interest and Transparency Statements intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the publication of Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries for the Scottish Parliament. A copy of the proposed response to the consultation had been issued to members of the Board under separate cover as Appendix 1 to the report.

The report intimated that following their publication on 26 September 2024, the proposals were reported verbally by the Head of Corporate Governance to the meeting of Renfrewshire Council held the same day. Taking into consideration the short timescale provided for a response to the proposals, the Council agreed that authority would be delegated to the Chief Executive, in consultation with this Board, to submit a response to the public consultation on behalf of the Council.

The report advised that the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency was one of six Scottish constituencies to have both a proposed new name and new boundaries. In relation to boundary changes impacting on the three local constituencies, the boundary between the proposed Paisley and Renfrewshire West constituencies had been amended to include the Phoenix Retail Park within the Paisley constituency area; the boundary between the proposed Eastwood and Renfrewshire West constituencies reverted to the existing Scottish Parliamentary boundary with the inclusion of Neilston in Renfrewshire West; the boundary between the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald constituency and the Glasgow Central constituency had been amended with Shieldhall being retained within the Glasgow Central constituency; to address this imbalance in the electoral quota created by Neilston being included within the Renfrewshire West constituency, the boundary between the proposed Erskine, Renfrew and Cardonald and the Renfrewshire West constituencies had been amended to include Bishopton within the Renfrewshire West constituency.

The Board noted that the Further Proposals included a proposal to remove part of Ward 8 from the Renfrewshire West constituency and place it in the Paisley constituency. This change had not been consulted on previously and the Board agreed unanimously that comments be included in the Council's response calling for the entirety of Ward 8 to remain in the Renfrewshire West constituency. The Board further agreed unanimously that reference also be made to the role of List MSPs, their relationship with the regions they represented and the need to have understandable geographical boundaries and contain electorates with local ties, common interests and connections.

DECIDED:

(a) That the proposed response to Boundaries Scotland’s Further Proposals for constituency boundaries and Provisional Proposals for new region boundaries for the Scottish Parliament, appended to this report, be agreed subject to the inclusion of the additional comments set out above; and

(b) That it be noted that the Chief Executive would submit the Council’s response by the public consultation deadline of 26 October 2024.