Government & politics — United Kingdom

• self-descriptive country name
• the designation "Great Britain," in the sense of "Larger Britain," dates back to medieval times and was used to distinguish the island from "Little Britain," or Brittany in modern France
• the name Ireland derives from the Gaelic "Eriu," the matron goddess of Ireland (goddess of the land)

• no official date of independence: 927 (minor English kingdoms unite)
• 3 March 1284 (enactment of the Statute of Rhuddlan uniting England and Wales)
• 1536 (Act of Union formally incorporates England and Wales)
• 1 May 1707 (Acts of Union formally unite England, Scotland, and Wales as Great Britain)
• 1 January 1801 (Acts of Union formally unite Great Britain and Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
• 6 December 1921 (Anglo-Irish Treaty formalizes partition of Ireland
• six counties remain part of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland)
• 12 April 1927 (Royal and Parliamentary Titles Act establishes current name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

• history: uncoded; partly statutes,
• partly common law and practice amendments: proposed as a bill for an Act of Parliament by the government, by the House of Commons, or by the House of Lords; passage requires agreement by both houses and by the monarch (Royal Assent); many previous, last in 2020 - The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020, European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020

• Prime Minister Keir STARMER (since 5 July 2024) cabinet: Cabinet
• appointed by the prime minister election/appointment process: the monarchy is hereditary; following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or
• majority coalition usually becomes the prime minister note 1: in addition to serving as the UK head of state, the British sovereign is the constitutional monarch for 14 additional Commonwealth
• countries (each referred to as a "Commonwealth realm") note 2: King CHARLES III succeeded his mother, Queen ELIZABETH II, after serving as Prince of Wales (heir apparent) for over 64 years -- the longest such tenure in British history

Description

bicameral Parliament consists of: House of Lords (membership not fixed; as of December 2023, 784 lords were eligible to participate in the work of the House of Lords - 667 life peers, 91 hereditary peers, and 26 clergy; members are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister and non-party political members recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission);

Note

• House of Lords total does not include ineligible members or members on leave of absence House of Commons (650 seats
• members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority popular vote to serve 5-year terms unless the House is dissolved earlier)

Elections

House of Lords - no elections;

Note

• in 1999, as provided by the House of Lords Act, elections were held in the House of Lords to determine the 92 hereditary peers who would remain
• elections held only as vacancies in the hereditary peerage arise) House of Commons - last held on 12 December 2019 (next to be held no later than 28 January 2025)

Election Results

House of Lords -

Composition

• men 556, women 228, percentage women 29% House of Commons - percent of vote by party - Conservative 54.9%, Labor 30.8%, SNP 6.8%, Lib Dems 2.2%, DUP 1.2%, Sinn Fein 1.1%, Plaid Cymru .6%, other 2.5%
• seats by party - Conservative 365, Labor 202, SNP 48, Lib Dems 11, DUP 8, Sinn Fein 7, Plaid Cymru 4, other 5;

Composition

men 424, women 226, percentage women 34.8%, total

• highest court(s): Supreme Court (consists of 12 justices, including the court president and deputy president); note - the Supreme Court was established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and implemented in 2009, replacing the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords as the highest c
• ourt in the United Kingdom judge selection and term of office: judge candidates selected by an independent committee of several judicial commissions, followed by their recommendations to the prime minister, and appointed by the monarch;
• England and Wales: Court of Appeal (civil and criminal divisions); High Court; Crown Court; County Courts; Magistrates' Courts;
• Scotland: Court of Sessions; Sheriff Courts; High Court of Justiciary; tribunals;
• Northern Ireland: Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland; High Court; county courts; magistrates' courts; specialized tribunals

Summary

England: 24 two-tier counties, 32 London boroughs and 1 City

Regions or States

• of London or Greater London
• 36 metropolitan districts
• 59 unitary authorities (including 4 single-tier counties*); two-tier counties: Cambridgeshire
• Cumbria
• Derbyshire
• Devon
• East Sussex
• Essex
• Gloucestershire
• Hampshire
• Hertfordshire
• Kent
• Lancashire
• Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Norfolk
• North Yorkshire
• Nottinghamshire
• Oxfordshire
• Somerset
• Staffordshire
• Suffolk
• Surrey
• Warwickshire
• West Sussex
• Worcestershire London boroughs and City of London or Greater London: Barking and Dagenham
• Barnet
• Bexley
• Brent
• Bromley
• Camden
• Croydon
• Ealing
• Enfield
• Greenwich
• Hackney
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Haringey
• Harrow
• Havering
• Hillingdon
• Hounslow
• Islington
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Kingston upon Thames
• Lambeth
• Lewisham
• City of London
• Merton
• Newham
• Redbridge
• Richmond upon Thames
• Southwark
• Sutton
• Tower Hamlets
• Waltham Forest
• Wandsworth
• Westminster metropolitan districts: Barnsley
• Birmingham
• Bolton
• Bradford
• Bury
• Calderdale
• Coventry
• Doncaster
• Dudley
• Gateshead
• Kirklees
• Knowlsey
• Leeds
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Newcastle upon Tyne
• North Tyneside
• Oldham
• Rochdale
• Rotherham
• Salford
• Sandwell
• Sefton
• Sheffield
• Solihull
• South Tyneside
• St. Helens
• Stockport
• Sunderland
• Tameside
• Trafford
• Wakefield
• Walsall
• Wigan
• Wirral
• Wolverhampton unitary authorities: Bath and North East Somerset; Bedford; Blackburn with Darwen; Blackpool; Bournemouth
• Christchurch and Poole; Bracknell Forest; Brighton and Hove; City of Bristol; Buckinghamshire; Central Bedfordshire; Cheshire East; Cheshire West and Chester; Cornwall; Darlington; Derby; Dorset; Durham County*; East Riding of Yorkshire; Halton; Hartlepool; Herefordshire*; Isle of Wight*; Isles of Scilly; City of Kingston upon Hull; Leicester; Luton; Medway; Middlesbrough; Milton Keynes; North East Lincolnshire; North Lincolnshire; North Northamptonshire; North Somerset; Northumberland*; Nottingham; Peterborough; Plymouth; Portsmouth; Reading; Redcar and Cleveland; Rutland; Shropshire; Slough; South Gloucestershire; Southampton; Southend-on-Sea; Stockton-on-Tees; Stoke-on-Trent; Swindon; Telford and Wrekin; Thurrock; Torbay; Warrington; West Berkshire; West Northamptonshire; Wiltshire; Windsor and Maidenhead; Wokingham; York Northern Ireland: 5 borough councils
• 4 district councils
• 2 city councils; borough councils: Antrim and Newtownabbey; Ards and North Down; Armagh City
• Banbridge
• and Craigavon; Causeway Coast and Glens; Mid and East Antrim district councils: Derry City and Strabane; Fermanagh and Omagh; Mid Ulster; Newry
• Murne
• and Down city councils: Belfast; Lisburn and Castlereagh Scotland: 32 council areas; council areas: Aberdeen City
• Aberdeenshire
• Angus
• Argyll and Bute
• Clackmannanshire
• Dumfries and Galloway
• Dundee City
• East Ayrshire
• East Dunbartonshire
• East Lothian
• East Renfrewshire
• City of Edinburgh
• Eilean Siar (Western Isles)
• Falkirk
• Fife
• Glasgow City
• Highland
• Inverclyde
• Midlothian
• Moray
• North Ayrshire
• North Lanarkshire
• Orkney Islands
• Perth and Kinross
• Renfrewshire
• Shetland Islands
• South Ayrshire
• South Lanarkshire
• Stirling
• The Scottish Borders
• West Dunbartonshire
• West Lothian Wales: 22 unitary authorities; unitary authorities: Blaenau Gwent
• Bridgend
• Caerphilly
• Cardiff
• Carmarthenshire
• Ceredigion
• Conwy
• Denbighshire
• Flintshire
• Gwynedd
• Isle of Anglesey
• Merthyr Tydfil
• Monmouthshire
• Neath Port Talbot
• Newport
• Pembrokeshire
• Powys
• Rhondda Cynon Taff
• Swansea
• The Vale of Glamorgan
• Torfaen
• Wrexham

• Alliance Party (Northern Ireland) [Naomi LONG]
• Conservative and Unionist Party [Rishi SUNAK]
• Democratic Unionist Party or DUP (Northern Ireland) [interim leader Gavin ROBINSON]
• Green Party of England and Wales or Greens [Carla DENYER and Adrian RAMSAY]
• Labor (Labour)
• Party [Sir Keir STARMER]
• Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) [Sir Ed DAVEY]
• Party of Wales (Plaid Cymru) [Rhu ap LORWERTH]
• Scottish National Party or SNP [John SWINNEY]
• Sinn Fein (Northern Ireland) [Mary Lou MCDONALD]
• Social Democratic and Labor Party or SDLP (Northern Ireland) [Colum EASTWOOD]
• UK Independence Party or UKIP [Neil HAMILTON]
• Ulster Unionist Party or UUP (Northern Ireland) [Doug BEATTIE]

• no citizenship by descent only: at least one parent must b
• yes residency requirement for naturalization: 5 years

ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, C, CBSS (observer), CD, CDB, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, ECB, EIB, EITI (implementing country), ESA, EU, FAO, FATF, G-5, G-7, G-8, G-10, G-20, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC (national committees), ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD (partners), IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC (NGOs), MIGA, MONUSCO, NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, Pacific Alliance (observer), Paris Club, PCA, PIF (partner), SELEC (observer), SICA (observer), UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNHCR, UNMISS, UNOOSA, UNRWA, UN Security Council (permanent), UNSOM, UPU, Wassenaar Arrangement, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC

chief of mission

Ambassador Jane HARTLEY (since 19 July 2022) embassy: 33 Nine Elms Lane, London, SW11 7US mailing address: 8400 London Place, Washington DC 20521-8400

telephone

[44] (0) 20-7499-9000

FAX

[44] (0) 20-7891-3845

Email address and website

• SCSLondon@state.gov
• https://uk.usembassy.gov/

consulate(s) general

Belfast, Edinburgh

chief of mission

Ambassador Karen Elizabeth PIERCE (since 8 April 2020)

chancery

3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone

[1] (202) 588-6500

FAX

[1] (202) 588-7870

Email address and website

• britishembassyenquiries@gmail.com
• https://www.gov.uk/world/organisations/british-embassy-washington

consulate(s) general

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco consulate(s): Orlando (FL), San Juan (Puerto Rico)