Subdivisions of Scotland

Councils of Scotland
Category	Administrative unit
Location	Scotland
Number	32 Councils
Populations	21,400 (Orkney Islands) – 593,200 (Glasgow)
Areas	67 square miles (170 km2) (Dundee) - 11,838 square miles (30,660 km2) (Highland)
Government	Council government
Subdivisions	Lieutenancy Area, Shire

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For local government purposes, Scotland is divided into 32 areas designated as "council areas", which are all governed by unitary authorities^[1] designated as "councils". They have the option under the Local Government (Gaelic Names) (Scotland) Act 1997^[2] of being known (but not re-designated) as a "comhairle" when opting for a Gaelic name; only Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar (Council of the Western Isles) has chosen this option, whereas the Highland Council (Comhairle na Gaidhealtachd) has adopted its Gaelic form alongside its English equivalent informally.

The council areas have been in existence since 1 April 1996, under the provisions of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.

Historically, Scotland has been divided into 34 counties or shires. Although these no longer have any administrative function, they are still used to some extent in Scotland for cultural and geographical purposes.

History of the subdivisions of Scotland

Traditionally burghs have been the key unit of the local government of Scotland, being highly autonomous entities, with rights to representation in the old Parliament of Scotland. Even after the Acts of Union 1707, burghs continued to be the principal subdivision. Until 1889 administration was on a burgh and parish basis.

The years following 1889 saw the introduction of a hierarchy of local government administration comprising counties, counties of cities, large burghs and small burghs.

With effect from 16 May 1975 and until 31 March 1996 the local government divisions of Scotland consisted of an upper tier of regions each containing a lower tier of districts except for the single-tier island council areas.

Council areas

Source: 2011 Census for Scotland^[3]

Other subdivisions

Scotland has several other administrative divisions, some of which are handled by joint boards of the councils.

Police and fire services

The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 resulted in the merger of local police and fire services on 1 April 2013 to form the Police Service of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Seirbheis Phoilis na h-Alba) and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS, Scottish Gaelic: Seirbheis Smàlaidh agus Teasairginn na h-Alba).

Historically

(Pre 1975)

Policing was the responsibility of the Cities and Burghs of Scotland. (see List of burghs in Scotland)

(1975 - 2013)

Police and fire service areas date from the era (1975 to 1996) of regions and districts and island council areas.

Electoral and valuation

There are several joint boards for electoral registration and the purposes of property valuation for assessing council tax and rates.^[4]

Health

See also NHS Scotland

Until 1 April 2014 the towns of Cambuslang and Rutherglen were in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area despite being located in South Lanarkshire. They are now part of NHS Lanarkshire.

Transport

The Scottish Government has created seven "Regional Transport Partnerships", for establishing transport policy in the regions. They broadly follow council area groupings.

Eurostat NUTS

In the Eurostat Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), Scotland is a level-1 NUTS region, coded "UKM", which is subdivided as follows:

NUTS 1	Code	NUTS 2	Code	NUTS 3	Code
Scotland	UKM	Eastern Scotland	UKM2	Angus and Dundee	UKM21
				Clackmannanshire and Fife	UKM22
				East Lothian and Midlothian	UKM23
				Scottish Borders	UKM24
				Edinburgh	UKM25
				Falkirk	UKM26
				Perth and Kinross, and Stirling	UKM27
				West Lothian	UKM28
		South Western Scotland	UKM3	East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, and Helensburgh and Lomond	UKM31
				Dumfries and Galloway	UKM32
				East and North Ayrshire mainland	UKM33
				Glasgow	UKM34
				Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, and Renfrewshire	UKM35
				North Lanarkshire	UKM36
				South Ayrshire	UKM37
				South Lanarkshire	UKM38
		North Eastern Scotland	UKM5	Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire	UKM50
		Highlands and Islands	UKM6	Caithness and Sutherland, and Ross and Cromarty	UKM61
				Inverness, Nairn, Moray, and Badenoch and Strathspey	UKM62
				Lochaber, Skye and Lochalsh, Arran and Cumbrae, and Argyll and Bute (except Helensburgh and Lomond)	UKM63
				Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	UKM64
				Orkney Islands	UKM65
				Shetland Islands	UKM66

Land registration

The current land registration system in Scotland divides Scotland into 33 counties,^[5] each coming into effect on various dates between 1981 and 2003. These areas in most cases resemble those of the pre-1975 administrative counties with Glasgow being the only current city to form a registration county.

Sheriffdoms

Sheriffdoms are judicial areas. Since 1 January 1975, these have been six in number:^[6]

• Glasgow and Strathkelvin
• Grampian, Highland and Islands
• Lothian and Borders
• North Strathclyde
• South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway
• Tayside, Central and Fife

Civil parishes

Scotland is divided into 871 civil parishes which often resemble same-named but legally different ecclesiastical parishes. Although they have had no administrative function since 1930, they still exist and are still used for statistical purposes such as the census. Many former civil parish areas also continue to form current registration districts. It should be noted that many boundary changes have occurred over the years and that an area currently derived from an old parish might no longer contain a place previously within that parish. Similarly, county boundaries (as still used for land registration) have also changed over the years such that a parish mentioned historically (generally before the 1860s) as being in one county (or sometimes two due to straddling a border) might now be in a neighbouring county and consequentially in a different succeeding council area.

Communities

The base level of sub-division in Scotland is that of communities, which may elect community councils (CCs). The main role of the CCs is to channel local opinion to larger local-government bodies. Otherwise, they have very limited powers. There are around 1,200 communities in Scotland. Not all communities have councils; some have joint councils.

Scottish communities are the nearest equivalent to civil parishes in England.

See also

• List of articles about local government in the United Kingdom
• ISO 3166-2:GB, subdivision codes for the United Kingdom

References

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