The seat covers a large part of the Peak District: the uplands and dales made famous by the ITV series "Peak Practice". The stately home Chatsworth House is a leading tourist attraction in an area where tourism has become a major industry, employing over 6,000 people.
There has been a steep decline in farming jobs over the last 15 years and many farmers work only part-time nowadays. Other traditional industries, including textiles and quarrying, are also in decline, and while some hi-tech firms have sprung up, few companies in the seat employ more than 100 people. Despite this, unemployment remains relatively low.
By-elections have played an important part in the electoral history of Derbyshire West. Three months after the Liberal victory at Orpington in 1962 the Tories escaped another by-election defeat at their hands with a majority of 1,220.
Having established themselves as the principal challengers in 1983, the Liberals were 100 votes short of victory after Matthew Parris resigned his seat to pursue a career in the media. Since then the victor, Patrick McLoughlin, has represented the seat for the Conservatives, with the best of his election victories coming in 1992 when he recorded the largest post-war Conservative majority in the constituency - over 18,000 votes.