The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER SEVEN: POLICY PRIORITIES

Chapter aims

This chapter addresses three key questions:

• What do people think the Scottish Executive should be trying to achieve?
• To what extent is there consensus around people's priorities?
• How do the priorities chosen for the Executive compare with similar questions asked in other surveys in Scotland and Britain-wide?

Introduction

7.1 The two previous chapters looked at people's evaluations of the performance of devolution, both as a process and as a means of delivering public services. Another interesting issue is whether the policy priorities pursued by Scotland's devolved government mirror those of the public. The nature of political competition generally means that parties who win elections tend to do so in part as a result of matching their manifesto commitments to public concerns. It is also true, however, that public concerns are in turn moulded by long-established and high-profile government activities.

7.2 This chapter looks first at people's stated priorities for the Scottish Executive as a whole, then looks at how these vary across the population. The question about priorities asked:

Here is a list of things the Scottish Executive could try and achieve. Which do you think should be its highest priority, that is the most important thing it should try and do?
Improve standards of education
Improve housing
Help the economy to grow faster
Improve people's health
Cut crime
Improve the environment
Improve public transport

7.3 These results are also compared with the results from the 2003 survey, when people were asked which issue had mattered most to them when voting in the election to the Scottish Parliament. Finally the results will be compared to a question in the British Social Attitudes survey which asks people which area of government spending they would like to see increased.

Priorities for the Scottish Executive

7.4 Respondents were presented with a list of seven possible things the Scottish Executive could aim to achieve and asked them to say what their first priority would be. Table 7.1 presents people's responses and reveals that the most commonly chosen item was "improve people's health" (27%), followed by "cut crime" (22%) and "improve standards of education (17%). The least commonly chosen option was "improve public transport" picked by just one in a hundred. As the proportion choosing this was so low the more detailed analysis presented in Table 7.2 combines the two least commonly chosen options (the environment and transport).

Table 7.1 What should be the Scottish Executive's highest priority?

Note to table

The table is presented in order of the most common responses given. The order which was presented to respondents is shown in the introduction to this chapter.

Is there a consensus around priorities for the Scottish Executive?

7.5 Table 7.2 looks at the extent to which priorities are common across different social groups. The first thing to note is that the choices people made were fairly varied and this is underlined by the fact that even the most commonly mentioned item, health, was picked by only around one in four (27%). Health was the top priority for almost all groups, however, there are some notable exceptions highlighted in the discussion below..

7.6 When considering the Scottish Executive's priorities, men and women have broadly similar views. With the exception of the economy, where men are slightly more likely to choose this than women, no other differences are statistically significant. Age, on the other hand, makes quite a difference to people's views. There is little variation when it comes to health, public transport or the environment, but for the four remaining areas quite clear patterns emerge. Older people are more likely to prioritise cutting crime and help for the economy than are younger people, for example those aged over 65 are five times as likely to choose the economy as those aged 18-24. In contrast, younger people are more likely to choose improving education and housing than are their older counterparts.

7.7 Such patterns undoubtedly reflect people's differing concerns over the life-cycle; in many instances housing and education are critical issues for young people whereas concerns about crime and the economy probably loom larger for older people many of whom will have pensions and investments whose performance will depend in part on the strength of the economy. Another example of this pattern is in relationship to economic hardship. People who said they were having difficulty coping on their income were twice as likely to choose housing compared to people who said they were living comfortably.

7.8 People's highest educational qualification is also important, but not in as many ways as age. The two areas where education appears to make an impact are crime and, perhaps unsurprisingly, education standards. People with no qualifications are twice as likely as those with degrees to prioritise cutting crime, and are half as likely to choose improving education standards.

7.9 What kind of community people live in makes a difference to their views about cutting crime, education, the economy and, to a limited extent, transport and the environment, though the relationships did not follow any clear patterns. For example, people in small remote towns and in remote rural areas are the least likely to prioritise cutting crime or education compared with all the other groups (though note that for education the views of those in 'other urban' areas were very similar to those in the remote locations). In contrast, people in large urban areas and in small accessible towns are the least likely to prioritise the economy. Those most likely to prioritise the environment or public transport are to be found in small accessible towns, where 7% pick this option. In contrast, 3% in 'other urban' areas choose this.

7.10 By far the largest variation found is, however, in relation to health. People in small remote towns are twice as likely to name this as their top priority than those in small accessible towns (39% and 20% respectively). As noted above, people in remote areas are also the least likely to say that cutting crime or improving education should be the Executive's top priority.

Table 7.2 Priorities for the Scottish Executive, by sex, age, education, self-rated hardship, and urban / rural residence

Note to table

The policy areas are presented in order of the priority people gave them, not by the order in questionnaire. The two least commonly chosen options (public transport and the environment) have been combined.

7.11 These results are similar to findings in previous years. For instance, when asked what issue had mattered most to them when deciding how to vote in the 2003 Holyrood election the 2003 Scottish Social Attitudes survey found that the same issues occupied the top four places, though in a different order, health, education, the economy and law and order then transport. Additionally the British Social Attitudes survey has asked people to nominate their first and second priorities for extra government spending since the survey began in 1983 and health has been the public's number one priority for extra spending every year (Bromley and Hewson, 2005).

Key points from this chapter

• The areas most commonly chosen as priorities for the Scottish Executive to try and achieve were: improve people's health (27%), cut crime (22%), and improve standards of education (17%).
• Improving health was the top priority for most, but people living in remote rural areas stood out as the most likely to choose this (39%), they were also much less likely to prioritise cutting crime or improving education standards.
• 21% of people aged over 65 chose the economy compared to just 4% of 18-24 year olds.
• People having difficulty coping on their income were twice as likely to choose housing as people living very comfortably (19% compared to 11%).
• 28% of people with no qualifications chose cutting crime compared with 15% of people with degrees.
• When asked what was important when deciding how to vote in 2003 voters prioritised health, education, the economy and law and order - a fairly similar pattern to that found in relation to priorities for the Scottish Executive.
• Looking at Britain-wide trends, health has consistently been chosen as the number one priority for extra government spending followed by education for over twenty years now.

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