About elections
General elections
The elections to the UK Parliament usually take place every five years.
The UK Parliament is made up of two ‘houses’ – the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons has 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) each of whom represents a constituency (a part of the UK) and the House of Lords has over 700 unelected members and their role is to scrutinise the work of the House of Commons.
This area is covered by two parliamentary constituencies:
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket constituency.
- West Suffolk constituency.
For more details visit Your MPs
Local government elections
Local government elections take place every four years. Local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as councillors in county, borough, district, town and parish councils.
West Suffolk has 117 parishes or parish wards. Details of the parishes and parish wards in West Suffolk can be found in the Parish Council Directory.
Police and Crime Commissioner elections
There are 41 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales. Police and Crime Commissioner elections take place every four years. West Suffolk is represented by the Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner. For more details visit: Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner.
Referendum
A referendum is a method of referring a question or set of questions to the entire electorate directly.
Previous referendums in the UK include:
- 5 May 2011 - Referendum on whether to change the voting system for electing MPs to the House of Commons from first past the post to the alternative vote.
- 23 June 2016 - Referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.