Coronavirus (COVID-19): mental health tracker study - wave 2 report

Annex 5. Trust in authorities

Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they felt members of the police, NHS, UK Government, and Scottish Government could be trusted.

Police

Over two thirds of respondents (68.3%) said that they trusted the police to some extent and around a third of these respondents reported trusting the police completely.

• Around three quarters of the women in the sample reported trusting the police (72.0%) than men (64.4%).
• Around half of the youngest respondents felt the police were at least somewhat trustworthy (51.3%) compared to 67.6% of 30-59 year olds and over three quarters of respondents in the 60+ year old group (81.3%)
• Around half of respondents with a pre-existing mental health condition felt the police were at least somewhat trustworthy (54.7%) compared to 70.2% of those without a pre-existing mental health condition.

NHS

The majority of respondents (88.5%) reported trusting the NHS to some extent and around half (49.5%) of these respondents endorsed trusting the NHS completely.

• Respondents from the higher SEG groupings were more likely to trust the NHS (89.8%) than those from lower SEGs (86.2%).
• Over ninety percent (96.2%) of the 60+ year group reported trusting the NHS to some extent compared to 87.2% of 30-59 year olds, and 80.9% of 18-29 year olds.
• Men were more likely to trust the NHS (89.8%) than women (87.5%). Additionally, men were more likely to report trusting the NHS completely (53.7%) than women (45.6%).
• Respondents with a pre-existing mental health condition were more likely to report not trusting the NHS (10.6%) compared to those without a pre-existing mental health condition (5.8%).
• The majority of those with a with pre-existing physical health condition felt the NHS were trustworthy (93.2%) compared to 87.4% of those without a pre-existing physical health condition.

Trust in government

Respondents were asked to what extent they felt the UK and Scottish governments could be trusted.

Just under a third of respondents (29.2%) said that they felt the UK government could be trusted to some extent while 61.1% said they did not trust it at all or did not trust it very much.

• The 60+ age group were more likely to report trusting the UK government to some extent (37.9%) than respondents in either of the other age groups (30-59 year olds: 26.0%; 18-29 year olds: 24.4%).
• Men were more likely to report not trusting the UK government at all (37.3%) compared to women (30.2%).
• Over three quarters of respondents with a pre-existing mental health condition were more likely to report not trusting the UK government (79.5%) compared to those 58.5% of those without a pre-existing mental health condition.
• Respondents with a pre-existing physical health condition were more likely to report not trusting the UK government (68.2%) than those without a pre-existing physical health condition (59.4%).