What consideration it has given to the Local Government Boundaries Commission for Scotland’s Fifth Electoral Review.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland published and submitted to Scottish ministers on 26 May 2016 its reports and final recommendations for the number of councillors and the electoral ward boundaries in each of Scotland's 32 local authorities, following completion of its fifth electoral reviews. Ministers are now considering those recommendations, and will take decisions on whether to implement them once that consideration has been completed. There is no statutory deadline by which such decisions must be taken.
Local government electoral reviews are governed by the local government (Scotland) Act 1973 as amended, under which ministers can implement the recommendations for a local authority area with or without modification, decide not to implement them, or ask the commission to undertake another review of the area involved. Schedule 6 to the 1973 Act sets out the rules to be observed by ministers in considering the recommendations that have been made by the commission. Those rules include a requirement to have regard to any local ties which would be broken by the fixing of any particular boundary.