About Us

The context for the appointment of the District Electoral Areas Commissioner on 1 July 2009 is the District Electoral Areas Commissioner (Northern Ireland) Order 1984, as amended by the District Electoral Areas Commissioner (Northern Ireland) (Amendment) Order 2007.

The Order requires the Commissioner to submit a report to the Secretary of State, as soon as practicable, setting out, in respect of each local government district in Northern Ireland, his recommendations for the grouping together of the wards, as constituted by the order to be made under section 50 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972, into electoral areas for the purpose of local government elections in each of those districts.

The Commissioner is assisted by three statutory Assessors in identifying and reviewing relevant available data and in analysing various statistics.  The Secretary of State, at the request of the Commissioner, will appoint a number of Assistant Commissioners to hold public hearings and provide advice to the Commissioner.  A Secretariat made up of administrative and professional staff through secondment from the Northern Ireland Office provides support to the Commissioner.