This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Public attitudes to public services
03/01/2007
Three research reports focusing on public attitudes to public services were published today.
The research shows that improving people's health, cutting crime and strengthening the economy are perceived as the top three priorities for the Executive by the Scottish public.
The reports form part of the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey.
The SSA was launched by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (part of the National Centre for Social Research) in 1999 and aims to provide an independent and authoritative source of data on attitudes in post-devolution Scotland.
Minister for Finance and Public Services Tom McCabe said:
"The Executive is making a difference to the lives of the people of Scotland. The policies we are putting in place in health, education, crime, transport and jobs and the emphasis we place on growing the economy are all helping to build a better Scotland.
"It is crucial our policies are based on sound evidence and research and that is why we commission these annual research reports.
"We are not complacent - this research clearly signals there is still much to be done and people have high aspirations. We share that ambition and want to step up the pace of delivery and reform. We will use this research to inform the evolution and development of our policies."
The key findings of the research include:
- Improving people's health (26 per cent), cutting crime (23 per cent) and strengthening the economy (18 per cent) were perceived as the top three priorities for the Executive.
- Trust in devolved bodies is consistently higher than in the UK government - while 56 per cent said they trusted the Scottish Executive to work in Scotland's best interests 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot', only 23 per cent said the same of the UK government.
- Views on public services remain mixed. More people thought that the standard of living and the quality of education had increased in the past 12 months than thought they had decreased. Young people and those with school age children were particularly positive about the quality of education (for example, 35 per cent of 18-24 year olds thought standards had improved). Perceptions of the standard of the health service remain the most negative, although fewer people thought standards had fallen over the previous year than did in 2004.
- Regular transport users are most satisfied with public transport - 35 per cent who used transport every day thought standards had improved in the past year, compared with only 12 per cent who used it less than once a month or never.
- More than a third of people, 37 per cent, think having a Scottish Parliament is giving ordinary people more say in how Scotland is governed, while only a small minority (five per cent) think it is giving people less say.
- More than four in ten (41 per cent) think the Scottish Parliament is giving Scotland a 'stronger voice in the UK'. Just six per cent think that it has weakened Scotland's voice.