The Scottish Government

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Responsibility for standards in public services

30. Evaluations of performance are just one half of the story. To understand public perceptions of the impact of the Scottish Executive and Parliament on services, we also need to know who is seen as responsible for changing standards. In addition to asking people to evaluate each of the areas discussed above, we asked a follow-up question 'What do you think this has been mainly the result of?'. People were asked to choose between ' UK policies at Westminster', 'Scottish Executive policies' or 'some other reason.' ⁵

31. Of the 5 areas discussed in this report, the Scottish Executive is primarily responsible for policies on education, public transport and the health service in Scotland. The UK government has a larger role to play in the economy, while the general standard of living is affected by the policies of both institutions, as well as a host of external factors.

32. These broad divisions are, to some extent, reflected in who people hold accountable for standards in these areas (Table 10). The UK government is more likely to be held accountable for the general standard of living and the economy. In contrast, more people hold the Scottish Executive than the UK government responsible for standards in education and public transport.

33. However, the picture is not wholly clear-cut. The proportion who attribute the standard of education to Scottish Executive policies is just 2 points higher than the proportion who hold the UK government responsible. Further, although decisions about Scotland's health service are devolved, almost twice as many people hold the UK government responsible for standards over the past year.

Table 10 Overall allocations of responsibility for standards in the last 12 months, 2005

What makes people more likely to say the Scottish Executive is responsible?

34. Of course, we cannot assume that everyone who apportions responsibility to the 'wrong' body does so out of ignorance. It is entirely possible, for example, that someone who sees the UK government as responsible for standards in the health service could be passing judgement on the size of the budget allocated to Scotland from Westminster. However, further analysis suggests that knowledge is a key factor associated with attributing responsibility to the Scottish Executive ⁷. Those who displayed higher levels of knowledge about the responsibilities and mechanics of the devolved institutions ⁸ were much more likely than the less knowledgeable to attribute responsibility for standards to the Scottish Executive. This was true for all of the areas covered with the exception of the economy.

35. As might be expected, there is also a clear relationship between perceptions of influence and attributions of responsibility. For example, among those who think the Scottish Executive is the body with most influence over how Scotland is run, 42% think standards in education over the last 12 months are the result of Scottish Executive policies. In contrast, just 28% of those who think the UK government most influential attribute the quality of education to Scottish Executive policies. A very similar pattern emerges for all 5 areas included in the study, including those which are perhaps less obviously primarily the responsibility of the Scottish Executive ( e.g. the economy).

36. However, the association between judgements of influence and responsibility is not perfect. Taking education as an example again, among those who think the Scottish Executive has most influence, a significant minority (23%) still attribute changing standards to the policies of the UK government. This may, in part, reflect a lack of knowledge about the precise policy responsibilities of the Executive, even among those who see the Executive as influential at a general level. That said, the correlation between judgements of responsibility and knowledge is not perfect either. For example, even among those who are certain that the Scottish Executive makes most decisions about health spending in Scotland ⁹, 31% attribute responsibility for standards in the Health Service over the past 12 months to the UK government.

37. Thus while political knowledge and perceptions of influence in part explain why some people are more likely to attribute responsibility to the Executive, it appears there are still other factors at play. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of the balance of powers and responsibilities between Scotland and Westminster, with the policies of both arguably influencing each of the 5 areas explored in this report.

Changing perceptions of responsibility over time

38. The third report in this series examines perceptions of power and influence in more detail. It shows a slow but steady increase in the proportion who think the Scottish Executive is the institution with most say over how Scotland is run. ¹⁰ Given the apparent association between perceptions of influence and attributions of responsibility, one might also expect that the proportion of people who think standards in public services are the result of Scottish Executive policies will have increased over time.

39. For education and health, this does in fact appear to be true (Table 11). The proportion of respondents attributing standards in the health service to the Scottish Executive's policies has increased from 11% in 2001 to 23% in 2005, while the proportion attributing standards to the UK government fell from 53% to 39% over the same period. A similar pattern is evident for education. Moreover, in 2005 the proportion who hold the Scottish Executive responsible for standards in education outweighs the proportion who hold the UK government responsible for the first time (30% and 28% respectively).

40. In both cases, it is worth noting that by far the biggest increase in the proportion holding the Scottish Executive responsible occurred between 2001 and 2003. This perhaps reflects the wide media-coverage given to two key Scottish Executive policies related to these areas (free personal care for the elderly and the abolition of tuition fees) during this early period. In diverging from UK government policy in these areas, the Scottish Executive may have increased awareness of its responsibilities for health and education.

41. There has been a smaller increase in the proportion of people attributing responsibility for living standards to the Scottish Executive (with the main shift again occurring between 2001 and 2003). 'The general standard of living' is affected by many factors, some of which (such as macro-economic policy and taxation) fall outside the Scottish Executive's remit. As such, it is perhaps unsurprising that devolution has not been accompanied by a very large shift in perceptions of responsibility in this area.

Table 11 Responsibility for standard of the health service, quality of education and standard of living in Scotland, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005

42. Questions on the standard of public transport and strength of the economy have only been included since 2004. As such, it is too early to identify trends in the overall attribution of responsibility for these areas (in fact, findings for 2005 were similar to those for 2004).

Who gets the credit and who gets the blame?

43. Simply knowing who people hold responsible for standards in public services overall does not tell us who is credited for perceived improvements and who is blamed for perceived deteriorations. It is perfectly possible that these are not assigned to the same bodies. Park and McCrone (2006) found a 'reverse symmetry' in attitudes in their analysis of the 2003 survey. Where standards were seen to have declined, the UK government was most likely to be held responsible. However, among those who think things have improved, the Scottish Executive is most likely to be given the credit.

44. A very similar pattern is evident in the 2005 data. Taking attitudes to the health service as an example (Table 12), among those who think standards have gone up, 45% credit the Scottish Executive, while just 32% credit UK government policies. On the other hand, among those who think standards have fallen in the last year, over half (52%) think UK government policies are responsible for this, while less than 1 in 5 (18%) believe it is the result of Scottish Executive policies.

Table 12 Responsibility for changes in standards in the health service over the last 12 months, 2005

45. Similar patterns emerged for education, public transport and the economy. The latter is particularly interesting given that arguably the economy is primarily the responsibility of the UK Treasury. In spite of this, the UK government get relatively little credit for perceived improvements (32%, compared with 47% who credit the Executive) while retaining most of the blame from those who think the economy has weakened (44%, compared with 27% who think the Scottish Executive responsible).

46. The only area in which the UK government receives more credit than the Scottish Executive is in relation to the general standard of living. Forty-four percent attribute improvements in living standards to UK government policies, compared with 26% who credit the Scottish Executive. However, it is not the case that the Scottish Executive is then blamed by those who feel that living standards have declined. Fifty-six percent of those who feel things have got worse attribute this to UK government policies, compared to just 13% who attribute it to the Scottish Executive. Thus even where the Scottish Executive does not receive much of the credit from more favourable respondents, neither does it receive much of the blame from respondents who are more negative in their evaluations.

47. This 'reverse symmetry' was more consistently evident in the results of the 2005 Scottish Social Attitudes survey than the 2004 survey. For example, in 2004, respondents were more likely to credit the UK government than the Scottish Executive for improvements in the health service, as well as the standard of living.

Changing perceptions of credit and blame

48. In general then, in 2005 those who feel standards have improved ('optimists') are likely to give the Scottish Executive the credit, while those who feel standards have deteriorated ('pessimists') are likely to hold the UK government responsible. However, we saw above that people are somewhat more likely overall to attribute responsibility to the Scottish Executive in 2005 than they were in 2001. Is this increase similar for both credit and blame?

49. The answer for health and education appears to be yes. We find the Scottish Executive is both more likely to be credited with increases and slightly more likely to be held responsible for decreases in standards than it was in 2001. For example, in 2005, 45% of those who think standards in health have increased credit the Scottish Executive for this improvement, compared with 24% who did so in 2001. At the same time, the proportion of those who think standards have fallen who blame the Scottish Executive for this perceived deterioration has also increased somewhat, from 8% in 2001 to 18% in 2005 (Table 13). Again, most of this shift occurred between 2001 and 2003, rather than in later years. A similar pattern is apparent for education. In both cases, the proportion of 'optimists' crediting the Scottish Executive with improvements outweighed the proportion of 'pessimists' blaming them for falling standards by roughly 2 to 1 in both 2001 and 2005.

Table 13 Attribution of 'credit' and 'blame' for standards in last 12 months to the Scottish Executive and UK government, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005

Sample sizes:
Standards in health service have increased - 2001=375, 2003 = 304, 2004 = 303, 2005 = 246
Standards in health service have fallen - 2001 = 643, 2003 = 689, 2004 = 754, 2005 = 590
Standards in education have increased - 2001=410, 2003 = 365, 2004 = 435, 2005 = 394
Standards in education have fallen - 2001 = 347, 2003 = 434, 2004 = 337, 2005 = 272
General standard of living has increased - 2001=509, 2003 = 479, 2004 = 514, 2005 = 423
General standard of living has fallen - 2001 = 307, 2003 = 382, 2004 = 389, 2005 = 331

50. As with overall judgements of responsibility for living standards (Table 11), there is no particularly clear pattern of change in the proportions 'crediting' or 'blaming' the Scottish Executive over time. Again, this may be a reflection of the fact that many different factors can affect living standards, some devolved, some reserved and some outside the direct influence of government altogether.

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