REGIONS OF ENGLAND
The region, also known as Government Office Region, is currently the highest tier of local government subnational entity of England in the United Kingdom.
History
The United Kingdom was divided into regions by John Major's government in 1994 following the Maastricht Treaty. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland had each constituted a region with England requiring further division. The English regions, which initially numbered ten, replaced the existing regional structure. Merseyside originally constituted a region in itself. In 1998 it was merged into the North West England region; creating the nine present-day regions. [1]
Powers and functions
Current
In 1998, regional assemblies were created in each English region. The powers of the assemblies are limited and, outside London, they are not directly elected. The functions of the English regions are essentially devolved to them from Government departments or have been taken over from pre-existing regional bodies, such as regional planning conferences and regional employers' organisations.
Each region has a Government Office and associated institutions, including a Regional Development Agency. As there are no regional elections, outside London, local representatives on regional assemblies are nominated by the councils within each region and 30% of members represent regional stakeholders.
Since 1999, the nine regions have also been used as England's European Parliament constituencies [2] and as statistical NUTS level 1 regions. Since 1 July 2006, there have been ten NHS Strategic Health Authorities, each of which corresponds to a region, except for South East England, which is divided into western and eastern parts.
Each regional assembly makes proposals for the UK members of the Committee of the Regions, with members drawn from the elected councillors of the local authorities in the region. The final nominations are made by central government. [3]
Future
The regions are to be used for fire brigade co-ordination in the future, with one headquarters for each region. [4] The current plans for consolidating the number of police forces propose merging forces within the confines of the current Government Office regions. Ofcom has tentatively proposed a telephone numbering plan with a wide area code (020, 021, 022 etc.) used for each government office region. [5] [6]
Elected assemblies
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As power was to be devolved to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales without a counterweight in England, a series of referendums were planned to establish elected regional assemblies in some of the regions. The first was held in London in 1998 and was successfully passed. The London Assembly and Mayor of London of the Greater London Authority were created in 2000. A referendum was held in North East England on 4 November 2004 but was rejected. Plans to hold further referendums in other regions were then cancelled.
Sub divisions
Local government in England does not follow a uniform structure. Therefore each region is divided into a range of further sub divisions. London is divided into London boroughs while the other regions are divided into metropolitan counties, shire counties and unitary authorities. Counties are further divided into districts and some areas are also parished. Regions are also divided into sub-regions which usually group socio-economically linked local authorities together. However, the sub-regions have no official status and are little-used other than for strategic planning purposes.
Criticism
There is opposition to an increased role for the regions and of the introduction of further elected regional assemblies. The Conservative Party's current policies do not include further regionalisation.
Criticisms range from claims that regions remove powers from other levels of local government or that as regions of the EU they are unsuited to English needs for local governance. The geographical scope of the regions has also been criticised with claims that places too socio-economically diverse are contained within the same region and regional boundaries have been set without consultation.
Alternative proposals range from retaining the current structure, replacement with city regions or providing an elected body for the whole of England.
See also
References
- ^ National Statistics - Beginners' guide to UK geography
- ^ United Kingdom Election Results
- ^ Committee of the Regions - Appointing the UK delegation
- ^ BBC News - Region gets fire control shake-up
- ^ Scotsman - Number's up for 0131
- ^ OFCOM - Wide area code planning (DOC)
External links
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