Britain holds its local elections on Thursday. Seats on the Scottish Parliament and local councils, the Welsh Assembly and most local councils in England outside London are all up for grabs. Here are some basic information on the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and English local councils.

Scottish Parliament elections

Elections for the Scottish Parliament are held every four years. The Scottish Parliament, which has 129 seats, runs its own government after it devolved in 1999 from British rule.

The Scottish Parliament can pass laws on education, criminal justice, the National Health Service, business, agriculture, local government, social housing, transport and tourism and some other areas.

It also has the power to change the basic rate of income tax, set by Westminster to cover the whole Britain, by up to 3 percent. The central government keeps control of areas such as foreign policy, immigration, defense, social security, employment and national security.

The elections use a mix of the "first past the post system" and a form of proportional representation. Also on Thursday, seats on all 32 unitary councils are to be contested.

Welsh Assembly elections

In Wales, voters are voting for 60 members of the assembly using "first past the post" and proportional representation. There are no council elections there.

Welsh Assembly is the devolved government of Wales. It can pass secondary legislation in areas such as agriculture, the environment, roads and transport, housing, social services, health, tourism and social services. some areas, which means it can modify Acts of Parliament using Assembly Orders, but not making new Acts itself.

However, the assembly does not have tax-raising powers but has some powers over government charges for services including National Health Service prescriptions, charges for nursing homes and university tuition.

Elections of the Welsh Assembly are also run every four years.

English local council elections

In the local council elections in England, a total of 10,455 seats from 312 local authorities are to be contested on Thursday. In some councils one third of seats will be up for election, whereas in others, the whole council will be elected. There are also mayoral elections in Bedford, Mansfield and Middlesbrough. Some 32.8 million people are eligible to vote in the biggest election in the local cycle in England.

Source: Xinhua