Scottish Government
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Public Attitudes to Government

Two research reports focusing on public attitudes to public services and government in Scotland are published today.

The fieldwork for the reports was carried out in 2006 - before the election of the current Scottish Parliament and new Scottish Government. It also pre-dates the name change from Scottish Executive to Scottish Government.

The independent reports form part of the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey.

They show that the top priorities for the people of Scotland in 2006 were improving health and cutting crime.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth John Swinney said:

"These reports are about public views expressed about the previous Scottish Executive and not our new Scottish Government. However we are pleased to see that the priorities for the people of Scotland are are among our own strategic priorities. We have already started work on these.

"This new Government is listening, inclusive and open. We had already addressed some of the issues raised in these reports. For example the name change to Scottish Government will mean people will understand more clearly who we are and what we do."

Findings include:

* Improving people's health (24 per cent) and cutting crime (24 per cent) remained the top public priorities for Scottish Executive action in 2006
* In 2006, 36 per cent thought the Scottish Executive was good at listening to people's views before taking decisions, but 53 per cent thought the Scottish Executive was not very or not at all good at listening to people's views
* 51 per cent of people in Scotland trusted the Scottish Executive 'just about always' or ' most of the time' to act in Scotland's interests in 2006, compared with 21 per cent who said the same of the UK Government

The Scottish Government funds a core module of questions in the SSA Survey which provides reliable time series data on public attitudes to government and public servicesin Scotland.

The SSA survey is carried out by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) and involves about 1,500 interviews each year. Respondents are selected using random probability sampling to ensure that the results are robust and representative of the Scottish population. The 2006 survey, which was conducted between August 2006 and January 2007, involved face-to-face interviews and a self-completion questionnaire with 1,594 Scottish adults (aged 18+).

Related Information

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/21153345/0

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/19102513/0

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/21155813/0

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/19102401/0

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