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Executive Summary
- In 2006, health and crime were considered by the public to be the top priority areas for the Scottish Executive.
- With regard to public services, between 22% and 30% thought the Scottish Parliament was increasing standards across the key areas of health, education and public transport. However, between 52% (for education) and 62% (for the health service) thought that the Scottish Parliament was making no difference.
- More people thought that standards over the previous twelve months had increased as opposed to decreased, in relation to education, public transport, the general standard of living and the strength of the economy. However, for the health service, a higher proportion said that standards had fallen than thought they had increased (42% and 20% respectively).
- A positive assessment of standards in public services in the last twelve months did not necessarily imply a positive assessment of the impact of the Parliament on services (and vice versa). This suggests that judgements about the performance of public services in the last twelve months may be driven by different factors to judgements about the overall impact of devolution on public services.
- Perceptions of the impact of the Parliament on public services appeared to be more strongly related to attitudinal factors, such as constitutional preference. Those who were more positive about devolution and the devolved institutions also tended to be more positive about the impact of the Scottish Parliament on standards in public services. These factors were not as strongly related to general perceptions of recent public sector performance.
- A key implication of this is that improving public perceptions of the performance of Scottish public services may not necessarily improve their assessment of the impact of devolution and the devolved institutions on those services.
- This implication is reinforced by the finding that a significant proportion of people still attributed recent standards in public services to either UK government policies or some other reason.
- However, people in 2006 were much more likely than people in 2001 to attribute responsibility for standards in health and education to the Scottish Executive, and less likely to attribute responsibility to the UK government. This was true across all socio-demographic and attitudinal groups - men and women, younger and older people, people who support devolution and those who would prefer Westminster rule were all more likely to attribute responsibility for standards in public services to the Scottish Executive in 2006 than they were in 2001. However, with regard to the health service, a majority of people still felt that standards in this area were a result of UK government policies.
- In 2006 the Scottish Executive was still more likely than the UK government to be given credit for perceived increases in standards, and the UK government was generally more likely to be blamed for perceived falls in standards. However, as awareness of its responsibilities increases, the Scottish Executive appears to be picking up not only an increasing share of the credit for perceived improvements in standards, but also an increasing share of the blame for any perceived falls.
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