Scottish social attitudes: attitudes to government and political engagement, 2016

Scottish Social Attitudes 2016

Attitudes to government and the Scottish Parliament

• In 2016, 65% trusted the Scottish Government to work in Scotland‟s best interests and 40% to make fair decisions, down from 73% and 49% respectively in 2015.
  Consistent with previous years, trust in the UK Government remained lower, at 25% and 18% respectively.
• For the first year in the time series, more people thought that the Scottish Government had most influence over the way Scotland is run (42%) than thought the UK Government had most influence (41%).
• Three quarters (75%) of people said that the Scottish Government should have most influence over the way Scotland is run. 14% said the UK Government should have the most influence.
• In 2016, the highest proportion over the time series said that the Scottish Parliament gave Scotland a stronger voice in the UK (71%). Similar to 2015, 59% said it gave ordinary people more say in how Scotland is governed.

Views on the economy and the standard of living in Scotland

• Helping the economy to grow faster was the most commonly chosen priority for Scottish Government action (28%).
• More than half of respondents (54%) said the economy had weakened over the past year, compared with 34% in 2015. 35% of those respondents attributed this to UK Government policy, 18% to Scottish Government policy and 37% to "some other reason"
• In 2016 36% said that the general standard of living in Scotland had fallen over the past year, compared with 42% saying this in 2015. 19% said the standard had increased.
  Of those who had perceived a fall in living standards, 50% attributed the fallen standard to UK Government policy; 15% attributed this to Scottish Government policy, and 19% attributed this to "some other reason".

Political Engagement

• Over two thirds (69%) of people said they had talked about the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum "a great deal" or "quite a lot"; 65% said the same of the EU Referendum. A lower proportion (34%) said the same of the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections.
• 54% of respondents said they talked more about politics as a result of the Independence Referendum. 40% said it made no difference; 6% said it made them talk less about politics.
• Two thirds (66%) of people had engaged in at least one of a range of political activities in the last few years as a means of registering what they personally thought about an issue, a similar proportion to 2015.
• 91% of respondents said that voting in Scottish Parliament elections was very or fairly important. 87% said this of local elections and 84% of UK general elections.

Views on the National Health Service in Scotland

• The majority of respondents were satisfied with the way the NHS was being run in 2016 (60%), similar to 2013 and 2015.
• More than a third (37%) said that standards in the health service had fallen over the past year. Of those, 40% attributed this to UK Government policy, 25% attributed this to Scottish Government policy, and 18% attributed this to "some other reason".
• 13% said that standards in the NHS had improved. Of those, 54% attributed this improvement to Scottish Government policy, 16% to UK Government policy and 24% to "some other reason".