England In 1974 county boroughs and several administrative counties were rearranged in England and Wales. Lieutenancies were also redefined to use the new
metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties directly. Some of these Lieutenancies did not last long, however. By the mid-1990s,
another local government reorganisation was underway and many of the non-metropolitan counties in England were re-organised, resulting in the creation of
unitary authorities. Most such unitary authorities created from the mid 1990s onwards are legally a non-metropolitan district and a non-metropolitan county which cover the same area and have just one council. It was decided in 1995 that some of these new non-metropolitan counties should not have their own lieutenant, and so provision was made for defining the counties for the purposes of
shrievalty and lieutenancy differently from the local government counties with effect from 1 April 1996. In particular, for the abolished counties of
Avon,
Cleveland and
Humberside the lieutenancy areas were re-aligned to generally correspond to the pre-1974 counties (with the exception of
Bristol which became its own lieutenancy area). When
Herefordshire,
Rutland and
Worcestershire were re-established as local government counties in 1997 and 1998, no amendment was made to the 1997 Act regarding them, allowing them to also serve as their own lieutenancy areas. This both redefined the lieutenancy area of
Leicestershire to what it had been prior to 1974 and fully abolished the lieutenancy area of the now defunct
Hereford and Worcester county. These provisions for defining counties for the purposes of lieutenancy differently from local government counties were consolidated into the Lieutenancies Act 1997. Various amendments to the 1997 Act have been made since 1997 to update these ceremonial counties to be defined in terms of new unitary authorities.
Scotland The
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 redefined the Lieutenancies not to be based on the then new Scottish Regions but as an approximation of the traditional counties in some places and entirely new creations in others. Local government in Scotland was further reformed on 1 April 1996 into single-tier authorities designated as "Councils", but the lieutenancies remain mostly matching the pre-1973 counties and cities.
Wales Local government in Wales was reorganised into a single-tier system on 1 Apr 1996 with the authorities designated as "Principal Councils" but nominally described as Cities, Boroughs or Counties. The lieutenancy areas remain based on the system of local government existing from 1974 to 1996. ==Passage through Parliament==