Scottish Reform Act 1832

The Scottish Reform Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the election laws of Scotland. The act was passed at approximately the same time as the Reform Act 1832, which applied to England and Wales. The chief architects of the act were Francis Jeffrey and Henry Cockburn. It was subsequently given the official short title of the Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832.

The act did not substantially change the method in which the Scottish counties elected members of Parliament. As a general rule the counties each continued to elect one member. However before the Act six small counties elected an MP only in alternate Parliaments. This arrangement was ended, but a different solution was adopted for each pair of counties. Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire became a single constituency. Buteshire and Caithness-shire were given a separate MP in every Parliament. Cromartyshire and Nairnshire were each united with a different neighbouring county, to form Ross and Cromarty, and Elginshire and Nairnshire.

Edinburgh and Glasgow now had two MPs; Aberdeen, Dundee, Greenock, Paisley and Perth one each. The remaining burghs combined in districts to elect 18 MPs, much as before; but now individual votes were added up among burghs across the constituency — in the past the MP had been elected at a meeting of representatives from each burgh. Boundary changes meant that a burgh for parliamentary elections might not have the same boundaries as the burgh for other purposes.