council. The 1972 Act required that all areas outside Greater London form part of a non-metropolitan county, and that all such counties should contain at least one district. Accordingly, the statutory instruments that effected the reorganisation separated the unitary districts from the county in which they were situated and constituted them as counties. The orders also provided that the provisions of the 1972 Act that every county should have a county council should not apply in the new counties, with the district council exercising the powers of the county council. An exception was made in the case of Berkshire, which was retained with its existing boundaries in spite of the abolition of its county council and the creation of six unitary authorities. This was done in order to preserve its status as a royal county. With the creation of numerous new non-metropolitan counties, the areas used for lieutenancy and shrievalty began to diverge from local government areas. This led to the development of ceremonial counties for these purposes, a fact recognised by the Lieutenancies Act 1997. 2009 A further wave of unitary authorities were created in 2009 under the terms of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. While a number of new counties were created, several of the new authorities (such as Cornwall or Northumberland) continued to have the boundaries set in 1974. 2019–2023 The 2019–2023 structural changes to local government in England have involved or will involve changes to the non-metropolitan county of Dorset (2019), and the abolition of the non-metropolitan counties Northamptonshire (2021) and Cumbria (2023). In addition, the non-metropolitan counties of Buckinghamshire (2020), North Yorkshire (2023), and Somerset (2023) are or will be unchanged, but their councils will become unitary authorities as the existing non-metropolitan districts in these areas were or will be consolidated and the district councils abolished. List of non-metropolitan counties The following list shows the original thirty-nine counties formed in 1974, subsequent changes in the 1990s, and further changes since then. Current Planned abolition abolished non-metropolitan county abolished non-metropolitan county and associated ceremonial county Wales In Wales there was not a distinction between metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties, with all upper tier areas designated "counties". The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 amended the 1972 Act, abolishing the Welsh counties and creating instead new Welsh principal areas, some of which are also designated "counties". For the purposes of lieutenancy the counties constituted