Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Roxburgh and Berwickshire (UK Parliament constituency).

Roxburgh and Berwickshire
Former county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
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Roxburgh and Berwickshire shown within the South of Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999
Abolished	2011
Council area	Scottish Borders

Roxburgh and Berwickshire was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament until 2011. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the South of Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Electoral region

See also South of Scotland Scottish Parliament region

The other eight constituencies of the South of Scotland region are Ayr, Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley, Clydesdale, Cunninghame South, Dumfries, East Lothian, Galloway and Upper Nithsdale and Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale.

The region covers the Dumfries and Galloway council area, the Scottish Borders council area, the South Ayrshire council area, part of the East Ayrshire council area, part of the East Lothian council area, part of the Midlothian council area, part of the North Ayrshire council area and part of the South Lanarkshire council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

The Roxburgh and Berwickshire constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.

The Holyrood constituency covers an eastern portion of the Scottish Borders council area. The rest of the council area is covered by the Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale constituency, which also covers a western portion of the Midlothian council area.

Boundary review

Following its First Periodic review of constituencies to the Scottish Parliament, the Boundary Commission for Scotland has recommended the Roxburgh and Berwickshire seat be expanded to form the newly shaped Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire constituency in time for the 2011 election.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Euan Robson	Liberal Democrats
	2003
	2007	John Lamont	Conservative

Election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: Roxburgh and Berwickshire
Notes: Green background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Lamont		10,556	41.11	+10.94	8,460	33.33
	Liberal Democrats	N Euan Robson		8,571	33.38	-7.85	5,956	23.47
	SNP	Aileen Orr		4,127	16.07	+3.56	5,317	20.95
	Labour	Mary Lockhart		2,108	8.21	-4.24	3,051	12.02
	Independent	Jesse Rae		318	1.24	+1.24
	Scottish Green						1,065	4.20
	Scottish Senior Citizens						423	1.67
	BNP						268	1.06
	UKIP						224	0.88
	Scottish Christian						148	0.58
	Solidarity						145	0.57
	Socialist Labour						111	0.44
	Scottish Socialist						86	0.34
	Scottish Voice						54	0.21
	Christian Peoples						44	0.17
	Independent - Paddy Scott Hogg						28	0.11
Informal votes				599			899
Total Valid votes				25,680			25,380
Turnout				26,279
	Conservative gain from Liberal Democrats		Majority	1,985	7.73

Scottish Parliament election, 2003: Roxburgh and Berwickshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Euan Robson	9,280	41.2	+0.6
	Conservative	Sandy Scott	6,790	30.2	+2.4
	SNP	Roderick Campbell	2,816	12.5	-4.4
	Labour	Sam Held	2,802	12.5	- 2.2
	Scottish Socialist	Graeme McIver	823	3.7	n/a
Majority			2,490
Turnout			22511
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	0.9 from LD to Con

Scottish Parliament election, 1999: Roxburgh and Berwickshire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Euan Robson	11,320	40.6	n/a
	Conservative	Alasdair Hutton	7,735	27.8	n/a
	SNP	Stuart Crawford	4,719	16.9	n/a
	Labour	Susan McLeod	2,802	14.7	n/a
Majority			3,585		n/a
Turnout			26,500		n/a
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	n/a

Scottish Youth Parliament

Christina Hendry and Andrew McGowan were elected Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP) in March 2011 for Roxburgh & Berwickshire.

Andrew McGowan MSYP took part in the 'Live Below the Line UK' challenge to raise money for the Global Poverty Project between 2 May - 6 May. The MSYP undertook the challenge to survive off £1 each day, for five days. Andrew raised just under £400 for the charity. The donations raised will go towards eradicating polio, ensuring a fair price for workers, exposing and tackling corruption as well as other anti-poverty strategies.

Andrew McGowan, who was also a Trustee/Director of the Scottish Youth Parliament, and Christina Hendrie stood down in June 2013.

In the SYP elections that followed, Nicola Pringle MSYP, Scott Redmond MSYP and Finlay Duff MSYP were elected to serve as Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament for the Borders.