Scottish Government

Footnotes

1. Given & Ormston (2006) Scottish Social Attitudes survey 2005: Scottish Executive Core module, Technical report, Scottish Executive Social Research.
2. Between 1999 and 2003 the relevant question about the devolved institutions referred to the 'Scottish Parliament'. However, following criticism that this meant that we were asking about a legislature in Scotland but an executive at UK level, an experiment was conducted on the 2004 survey in which a random half of the sample was asked about the Parliament and half about the 'Scottish Executive'. The two versions obtained virtually the same pattern of responses, and as a result in 2005 the question referred to the 'Scottish Executive'. Evidently the public does not differentiate much between the two bodies and the question can reasonably be regarded as an indicator of trust in the devolved institutions in general, whichever way it is asked.
3. In this and subsequent analyses we only report instances where extensive multivariate analyses uncovered statistically significant differences between two or more sub-groups. For details of these analyses see Given & Ormston (2006) Scottish Social Attitudes survey 2005: Scottish Executive Core module, Technical report, Scottish Executive Social Research. This of course means that other characteristics that were taken into account in our modelling are not significantly associated with the variable we are analysing (after taking into account all of the other variables in our model). In this instance this means that those in routine and semi-routine occupations are neither more likely nor less likely than those in professional and managerial occupations to trust the devolved institutions to a greater degree than they do the UK government.
4. Further analysis suggests that this pattern arises primarily because those who have a strong attachment to the Conservative or Labour parties are particularly likely to say that the UK Government looks after Scotland's interests. This then simply makes it less likely that they trust the Scottish Executive to any greater degree than they do the UK Government
5. As earlier the attitudes of different sub-groups are only shown where multivariate analysis revealed that there were statistically significant differences. See Given & Ormston (2006) Scottish Social Attitudes survey 2005: Scottish Executive Core module, Technical report, Scottish Executive Social Research for further details.
6. In contrast the attitudes of those who identify with other parties do not significantly differ from each other, and thus they have been combined in Table 7.
7. We have of course already noted that those who think that the Scottish Executive is good at listening are more likely to trust it. That here we find that this association can also be modelled in the opposite direction confirms that extreme caution needs to be exercised in assuming that one leads to the other rather than vice-versa.
8. We should, however, note that after taking into account the other influences we have discussed, our multivariate analysis reveals that those aged 55 and below are rather less likely to regard Scottish elections as relatively important than are those aged 65 plus.