Paisley North (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Paisley North was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering part of the council area of Renfrewshire. It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. For the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the town of Paisley was split between two new constituencies. The new constituency of Paisley largely replaced both Paisley North and Paisley South, whilst Renfrewshire North and West took some parts of the north west of Paisley.

Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, Paisley North was also one of nine constituencies in the West Scotland electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole. Prior to the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2011, the other eight constituencies of the West of Scotland region were: Dumbarton, Clydebank and Milngavie, Cunninghame North, Eastwood, Greenock and Inverclyde, Paisley South, Strathkelvin and Bearsden and West Renfrewshire

The region covered the West Dunbartonshire council area, the East Renfrewshire council area, the Inverclyde council area, most of the Renfrewshire council area, most of the East Dunbartonshire council area, part of the Argyll and Bute council area and part of the North Ayrshire council area.

The Paisley North constituency was created for the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, using the name and boundaries of the existing Paisley North constituency of the UK House of Commons. Ahead of the 2005 United Kingdom general election, House of Commons constituencies were altered, whilst the exisiting Scottish Parliament constituencies were retained.^[1]

Paisley North was entirely within the Renfrewshire council area. The rest of the Renfrewshire area was covered by the Paisley South, West Renfrewshire and Glasgow Govan constituencies. The West Renfrewshire constituency also covered a portion of the Inverclyde council area, and the Glasgow Govan constituency also covered a portion of the Glasgow City council area. Glasgow Govan was in the Glasgow electoral region.