Regions of England

The Region is the first level of administrative division, below the United Kingdom national government, within the country of England. Historically, the administrative divisions of England included Counties, Unitarian Authorities and Metropolitan counties. There were many attempts to rationalise these small divisions into a regional structure after world world war two. In 1972, the local government act reformed the administration of Scotland and Wales into regions but implementation in England was delayed and piecemeal. Some government departments set up regional offices with limited roles and the boundaries varied form department to department. In 1994, under John Major's government, 10 Regional offices were set up in order to standardise the regional boundaries across all departments. The new Labor government in 1997 used the Regional setup to establish Regional Development Agencies. Later, in 1998, the Region of Merseyside was merged into the North East Region, reducing the number to just 9 Regions. The regions borders also form the European Parliament constituencies for England.

Only one region - London - has a directly elected administration in the form of the London Assembly, Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The other regions have appointed assemblies containing members nominated by the county councils within each region. A referendum was held on 4 November 2004 in the North East Region on whither people wanted and elected assembly with devolved powers. The proposal was rejected and plans for referendums in other Regions have been put on hold indefinitely.

Catalog of Regions

Name	Regional HQ	European Parliament Representative	Land-area (km²)	Population	Subdivisions
North East	Newcastle	Martin Callanan (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Stephen Hughes (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Fiona Hall (Liberal Democrat; Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party)	8,573	2,515,442	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
North West	Liverpool and Manchester	Sir Robert Atkins (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Chris Davies (Liberal Democrat; Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Den Dover (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Sajjad Karim (Liberal Democrat; Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) Arlene McCarthy (Labour; Socialist group in the European Parliament David Sumberg (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Gary Titley (Labour; Socialist group in the European Parliament) John Whittaker (UK Independence party; Independence/Democracy Group) Terrence Wynn (Labour; Socialist group in the European Parliament)	14,165	6,729,800	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
Yorkshire and the Humber	Leeds and Sheffield	Timothy Kirkhope (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Edward McMillan-Scott (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Linda McAvan (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Richard Corbett (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Diana Wallis (Liberal Democrat; Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party) Godfrey Bloom (UK Independence party; Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities)	15,411	4,964,838	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
West Midlands	Birmingham	Philip Bushill-Matthews (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Philip Bradbourn (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Malcolm Harbour (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Michael Cashman (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Neena Gill (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Liz Lynne (Liberal Democrat; Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party) Mike Natrass (UK Independence party; Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities)	12,998	5,267,337	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
East Midlands	Melton Mowbray	Roger Helmer (Conservative; Non-attached members) Chris Heaton-Harris (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Glenis Willmott (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Bill Newton Dunn (Liberal Democrat; Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party) Robert Kilroy-Silk (Independent; Non-attached member) Derek Clark (UK Independence party; Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities)	15,607	4,172,179	x Ceremonial counties Which fruther divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
East	Cambridge	Geoffrey van Orden (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Robert Sturdy (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Christopher Beazley (Conservative; Group of the European People's party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats) Richard Howitt (Labour; Group of the party of European Socialists) Andrew Duff (Liberal Democrat; Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform party) Jeffrey Titford (UK Independence party; Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities) Tom Wise (UK Independence party; Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities)		5,388,154	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
London	Southwark	9 MEP	1,572	7,172,036	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
South East	Guildford	10 MEP	19,200	8,000,550	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District
South West	Bristol and Plymouth	7 MEP		4,928,458	x Ceremonial counties Which further divide into x Counties x Unitary Authorities x District