Politics of the Highland council area
The politics of the Highland council area in Scotland are evident in the deliberations and decisions of the Highland Council, in elections to the council, and in elections to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Scottish Parliament. In the European Parliament the area is within the Scotland constituency, which covers all of the 32 council areas of Scotland.
Highland Council
The Highland Council comprises 22 wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, which creates a form of proportional representation. The total number of councillors is 74, and the main meeting place and main offices are in Glenurquhart Road, Inverness.Current administration
The most recent election of the council was on 4 May 2017, and resulted in a coalition administration formed by two of the four political parties on the council, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party, together with the Independent group. The Coalition had 41 councillors, and the opposition was divided between 22 SNP councillors, 10 Conservatives, and 1 Green member.Subsequently, there have been two by-elections and two defections on the council, with one Liberal Democrat being replaced by an Independent, one SNP councillor being replaced by a Liberal Democrat, and two SNP councillors leaving the group.
2012 elections
The 2012 election was on 3 May, and resulted in a coalition administration formed by all three political parties on the council, the SNP, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party. The Coalition had 45 councillors and the other 35 councillors were Independents. This arrangement collapsed in June 2015, and was replaced by a minority administration of the Independent group.2007 elections
After the 2007 election, the Independent Group, led by Nairn ward councillor Sandy Park, effectively acted like a party, complete with a party whip. Immediately after the 2007 council election, an administration had then been formed by the Independent Group and the SNP, but collapsed when the SNP withdrew from the coalition. After the collapse, a second independent group was formed, called the Independent Members Group.From August 2008, the council had been ruled by a coalition of the Independent Group and Liberal Democrat and Labour parties. This administration was established following the collapse of a ruling coalition of the Independent Group and Scottish National Party in June 2008.
In February 2010, a third independent group was formed, when four councillors left the Independent Group and created the Independent Alliance Group. Since then groups and parties have been represented as follows:
The Liberal Democrat Michael Foxley had become the new council Convener by 23 December 2010.
Corporate and ward management areas
Since 2007, the 22 wards have been divided between three corporate management areas, and each of these is subdivided to create a total of 16 ward management areas. Some wards are grouped into larger areas for ward management purposes, and one ward is divided between two different ward management areas. Therefore, the number of ward management areas is less than the number of wards.The corporate management areas are named as Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey, and Ross, Skye and Lochaber. Two of these names are also those of Westminster Parliament constituencies, and one name is very similar to the name of another Westminster constituency, but constituency and corporate management area boundaries are different.
Corporate management areas are represented, for some purposes, by their own committees. Also, there is an Inverness city management area covering seven of the nine wards of the Inverness, Nairn, and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate management area, with the city area being represented by a city committee.
Public forums are held at ward level, and there are also private ward-level meetings of councillors.
The numbers of wards in each corporate management area, and the number of councillors representing them, are as follows:
| Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross | 7 wards electing 23 councillors |
| Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey | 9 wards electing 34 councillors |
| Ross, Skye and Lochaber | 6 wards electing 23 councillors |
For lists of wards and details of how they are grouped into corporate and ward management areas, see:
The first elections to the Highland Council were in 1995, when the unitary council was created under the Local Government etc. Act 1994. Since then, there have been general elections of the council at four year intervals. Since 1999 these elections have coincided with general elections of the Scottish Parliament, but the next council election has been delayed for a year, until 2012, to end this coincidence, making the current council term one of five years instead of four.
The new council was created to replace a regional council and eight district councils, which had been created under the Local Government Act 1973, and were abolished in 1996. Until 2007, the new council maintained decentralised management and committee structures which related to former district boundaries, except this arrangement was compromised by changes to ward boundaries in 1999, so that committees ceased to represent exactly the areas for which they were making decisions. Current management and committee structures, involving three corporate management areas and related committees, were created at the same time as the introduction of multi-member wards and single transferable vote elections in 2007.
The 1995 election created a council of 72 members, each elected from a single-member ward by the first past the post system of election. Ward boundaries were redrawn for the 1999 election, to create 80 single-member wards and, again, election was by the first past the post system. The same wards and the same system of election were used for the 2003 election. For the 2007 election, ward boundaries were redrawn again, under the Local Governance Act 2004, to create the current 22 multi-member wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system, but still electing a total of 80 councillors.
The eight older management areas, created when district councils were abolished in 1996, were also groups of wards, and each management area had an area committee of councillors elected from the wards in the area. Three of the older management areas, Caithness, Nairn and Sutherland, were very similar to earlier local government counties. Two others, Inverness and Ross and Cromarty, had the names of earlier counties but have very different boundaries.
The management areas were:
| 1996 to 1999 | 1999 to 2007 | |
| Badenoch and Strathspey | consisting of 5 wards | with 5 related wards |
| Caithness | consisting of 8 wards | with 10 related wards |
| Inverness | consisting of 20 wards | with 23 related wards |
| Lochaber | consisting of 8 wards | with 8 related wards |
| Nairn | consisting of 5 wards | with 4 related wards |
| Ross and Cromarty | consisting of 13 wards | with 18 related wards |
| Skye and Lochalsh | consisting of 6 wards | with 6 related wards |
| Sutherland | consisting of 7 wards | with 6 related wards |
For lists of wards see:
The council area is covered by three constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and three constituencies of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament constituencies are also components of that parliament's Highlands and Islands electoral region.
All the constituencies are entirely within the council area, but the Highlands and Islands electoral region includes also five other constituencies, covering the Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles council areas and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray council areas.
Since the creation of the unitary Highland council area, in 1996, the Westminster constituencies have been altered twice, in 1997 and 2005. Neither the Holyrood constituencies nor the Holyrood electoral region have been altered since their creation in 1999.
Westminster
As a geographic area the Highland council area is the largest in Scotland. Working solely on the basis of the size of its electorate, however, it would qualify for just 2.3 Westminster seats. Boundary reviews have considered ways of addressing the area's apparent over representation, by reducing the number of constituencies to two, or by creating constituencies straddling boundaries with other council areas, but to date, for various geographic and cultural reasons, none of these proposals has been reflected in actual boundary changes.1996 to 1997
The boundaries of one constituency had been established since the 1918 general election, the other two since the 1983 general election. There were no parliamentary elections during the 1996 to 1997 period.List of constituencies:
1997 to 2005
All of the council area's constituencies were altered for the 1997 general election. The same constituencies were used in the 2001 general election.List of constituencies:
2005 to present
All of the council area's constituencies were altered for the 2005 general election. One, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, carries forward the name of a constituency created in 1997. This new constituency is slightly larger than the earlier constituency.List of constituencies and current members of parliament:
Holyrood
The Holyrood constituencies were created for the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, with the names and boundaries of then existing Westminster constituencies. The same Scottish Parliament constituencies were used in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election and the 2007 Scottish Parliament election. There was a Boundary Commission which changed all the constituencies for the 2011 Scottish Parliament election.List of constituencies and current MSPs :
In addition to these three constituency MSPs, the Highland council area, as part of the Highlands and Islands electoral region, is represented by seven additional members: