Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands

House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands
3rd House of Assembly
Leadership
Speaker	Ingrid Moses-Scatliffe Since 8 June 2015
Structure
Seats	15
Political groups	NDP (11)      VIP (2)      Ex officio (2)
Elections
Last election	8 June 2015
Next election	22 August 2019 or earlier
Meeting place
Richard C. Stoutt Building, Road Town, Tortola
Website
www.legco.gov.vg

The House of Assembly of the British Virgin Islands, until 2007 known as the Legislative Council, has 15 members; 13 directly elected for four-year terms—nine in single-seat constituencies and four "at large"—one ex officio member and one Speaker chosen from outside the house.

Sittings of the House of Assembly are divided into "terms" with each term following from a general election. The House of Assembly is presently sitting its third term, but the first term of the House of Assembly followed the fifteenth term of the old Legislative Council. Accordingly, in aggregate the legislature is sitting its eighteenth term since the restoration of democracy in the Territory. Each term is then broken down into different "sittings". At the end of each sitting the House is either prorogued until the next sitting, or dissolved for a general election.

The Hon. Ingrid Moses-Scatliffe was elected Speaker of the House on 14 September 2007. The official record is Hansard.

The history of legislatures in the British Virgin Islands can be roughly divided into two: colonial legislatures in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and then a hiatus, followed by the modern legislature after the re-introduction of democracy in 1950.

There was no attempt to impose any form of local legislature prior to the British taking control of the islands in 1672. But in 1735 the Governor of the Leeward Islands, William Matthew sought to establish executive councils and legislative assemblies in Virgin Gorda and Tortola. The assemblies were to consist of nine member, elected by the free inhabitants of the islands. Following the elections, it was later determined that the governor had no such power and therefore the assemblies were ultra vires and were never called into session (although the councils did take up their duties).