Headline Results from the 2006 Scottish Household Survey

6. Access to services

Overall, the majority of adults find most services convenient to access. However, adults with no access to a car found some services less convenient to access than those with cars. Just over half of respondents who have access to a car (53%) and less than half (45%) of those who have no access to a car find outpatients departments very or fairly convenient. Adults with access to a car are less likely to say public transport is convenient (83%) compared to those without (94%). They are more likely than those without a car to say that banks, doctors and outpatients are convenient (Table 6.1).

The type of area impacts on perceptions of convenience of some services. For example, adults living in large urban areas are least likely to find post offices convenient - 84% compared with 94% in remote small towns. Respondents in rural areas are less likely to report that they find public transport, ATMs, chemists or pharmacists convenient (Table 6.2).

Just under half of all respondents (43%) agree that the services provided by their local council are of high quality. However, this was strongly related to the respondent's age. Older people were more likely to agree or strongly agree (59% of those aged 75 and over) that services were of high quality. Around a third (34%) of 16-24 year olds agreed that services were of high quality but an equal proportion gave a neutral response or expressed no opinion (Table 6.3).

Recycling services are used by the majority of households in Scotland; 80% reported that they recycle at least one type of item. Plastic and metal cans are least likely to be recycled; 47% of households recycle plastic and 48% metal cans. Recycling is correlated to whether households have access to a car. For example, 66% of household with access to a car recycle glass bottles compared with 38% with no access to a car (Table 6.4).

Table 6.5 shows that the majority of 16 to 24 year olds (78%) have access to the internet but access declines with age; 28% of those aged 60-74 and 8% of those aged 75 and over have access to the internet (Table 6.5). Overall, almost three quarters (73%) of those who access the internet have a broadband connection. However, this is much lower in remote rural areas (57%) compared with urban areas (76%) (Table 6.6).

Table 6.1: Percentage finding services very or fairly convenient by access to a car
Column percentage, 2006 data, Adult population

	Access to a car	No access to a car	All
Post office	87	86	87
Banking services	75	72	75
Cash machine or ATM	86	78	84
Doctors surgery	83	76	81
Small amount of grocery or food shopping	94	93	94
Police station	63	59	62
Chemist/pharmacist	88	87	88
Hospital outpatients department	53	45	51
Petrol station	86	52	77
Public transport	83	94	86
Public telephone box	53	60	55
Base	9,444	4,382	13,826
Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed

Table 6.2: Percentage finding services very or fairly convenient by urban/rural classification
Column percentages, 2006 data, Adult population

	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Post office	84	86	91	94	88	90	87
Banking services	74	78	75	90	63	74	75
Cash machine or ATM	85	87	90	93	73	79	84
Doctors surgery	79	81	89	90	79	86	81
Small amount of grocery or food shopping	94	95	95	96	89	94	94
Police station	59	67	65	87	49	67	62
Chemist/pharmacist	90	90	94	95	76	76	88
Hospital outpatients department	51	55	44	72	42	48	51
Petrol station	75	80	80	85	70	82	77
Public transport	93	91	88	83	65	58	86
Public telephone box	53	54	52	69	54	63	55
Base	4,887	4,055	1,298	716	1,575	1,295	13,826

Columns may add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed

Table 6.3: Level of agreement with the statement 'My council provides high quality services' by age
Column percentages, 2006 data, Adult population

	16 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Strongly agree	5	4	4	5	6	9	5
Tend to agree	29	35	35	36	43	50	38
Neither agree nor disagree	20	24	23	20	16	13	20
Tend to disagree	19	21	20	21	19	14	20
Strongly disagree	12	11	14	16	12	7	13
No opinion	14	6	4	3	4	6	5
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
*Base*	1,110	1,974	2,548	3,520	3,210	1,818	14,180

Table 6.4: Items recycled in the past month by whether have access to a car
Column percentages, 2006 data, Households

	Access to a car	No Access to a car	All
Glass bottles	66	38	57
Plastic	53	34	47
Metal cans	55	34	48
Newspaper/magazine/paper/cardboard	82	63	76
One or more of these items	87	67	80
Base	10,733	4,883	15,616

Columns add to more than 100% since multiple responses allowed

Table 6.5: Access to the Internet by age
Column percentages, 2006 data, Adult population

	16 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 59	60 to 74	75 plus	All
Yes	78	74	72	60	28	8	55
No	22	25	28	40	72	92	45
Don't know	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	1,111	1,976	2,550	3,524	3,211	1,818	14,190

Table 6.6: Broadband internet connection by urban/rural classification
Column percentages, 2006 data, Adult population

Adults who use the internet
	Large urban areas	Other urban areas	Accessible small towns	Remote small towns	Accessible rural	Remote rural	Scotland
Yes	76	76	74	70	70	57	73
No	22	22	25	29	29	43	25
Don't know	2	1	1	1	1	0	1
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	2,307	2,068	643	365	956	733	7,072
All adults
Yes	38	42	40	39	43	34	40
No	61	57	59	61	56	66	59
Don't know	1	1	0	1	0	0	1
Total	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Base	5,004	4,139	1,312	724	1,663	1,348	14,190

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Headline Results from the 2006 Scottish Household Survey

6. Access to services