The Scottish Government

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2. Priorities for the Scottish Executive

2.1 Respondents were asked to choose what they thought the Scottish Executive's highest priority should be from a list of seven key issues. The results show that public priorities have changed little over the last three years of the survey (Table 1). Improving people's health and cutting crime were still considered to be the top priorities in 2006, with almost half choosing either one or other of these. The economy and education have appeared in either third or fourth positions over the last three years, whilst public transport continued to be given least priority, relative to other issues. Scotland is not alone in prioritising health - the British Social Attitudes survey also shows that health is the top priority for extra government spending across Britain as a whole. ⁴

Table 1 What should be the Scottish Executive's highest priority? 2004, 2005 and 2006 (column %)

Base = all respondents.
Note: not all columns add to exactly 100% due either to rounding or because of small proportions saying either 'don't know' (1% in 2006) or giving some other top priority (less than 3% in 2006).

Different groups, different priorities?

2.2 Do different groups of the population have different priorities for Scottish Executive action? Data from the last three years of SSA (2004 to 2006) were combined (giving a combined sample size of 4,780) to allow a detailed exploration of differences across key sub groups (see Table A.1 in Annex A for full findings). Priorities varied by age, educational qualification and affluence, but varied less by sex. ⁵

Age

• The top priority for older people, aged 65 and over was cutting crime. Between 2004 and 2006, they were more likely than younger people to prioritise this (32%, compared with 22% of 18 to 24 year olds).
• Older people were also more likely than younger people to prioritise the economy (18%, compared with 6% of the youngest group).
• Health was the most common priority among 18-24 year-olds (27%).
• However, younger people (aged 18-24) were more likely than older people to prioritise:
  • education (18%, compared with 12% of the oldest group)
  • housing (17%, compared with 8% aged 65+), and
  • the environment (6%, compared with 3% aged 65+)

2.3 As discussed in the report on the 2005 findings (Given and Ormston, 2007), these findings reflect other research which has shown that while older people are less likely to be victims of crime they are more likely to be worried about it. Younger people's prioritisation of housing and education probably reflects the fact that these are often critical issues for this age group.

Educational qualifications

• The most common priority among those with no qualifications was cutting crime. They were more likely than those with higher-level qualifications to make this their top priority for Executive action (30%, compared with 17%).
• They were also more likely to prioritise housing (14%, compared to 9% of those with degrees or higher education qualifications).
• Those with degree or higher education qualifications were most likely to prioritise health (28%).
• They were also more likely to prioritise:
• education (20%, compared with 11% of those without qualifications), and
• the environment (6% compared with 3%).

Measures of affluence

2.4 Priorities varied by self-rated hardship (that is, how comfortable or difficult people say they find it to live on their current income), area deprivation (as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ⁶) and by household income. The general pattern shows that the top priority amongst more affluent groups was health, while less affluent groups prioritised cutting crime (both 28%). There is well a documented link between area-level deprivation and experience of crime. The 2004 Scottish Crime and Victimisation survey reports that households in the areas classified as most deprived experience more crime and anti-social behaviour than the least deprived areas.

2.5 Further:

• more affluent groups were more likely than less affluent or deprived groups to prioritise the economy and education, while
• less affluent groups were more likely to prioritise housing.

Again, this may reflect issues about the quality, choice and availability of housing to those on lower incomes.

Sex

2.6 From 2004 to 2006, the top two priorities for both men and women were health followed by crime. However, there were also some small differences by sex, with men slightly more likely than women to prioritise the economy (18%, compared with 14%), and women slightly more likely to say improving health was most important (27%, compared with 24%).

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