Report Summary
This report provides members of the Policing Performance Committee with an overview of SPA Biannual Public Opinion Polling Activity.
To access the full document please open the PDF document above.
To view as accessible content please use the sections below. (Note that tables and some appendixes are not available as accessible content).
Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Policing Performance Committee - 11 October 2022
Date : 11 October 2022
Location : online
Routine Public Polling
There has been significant value to the Authority in undertaking this independent and representative polling to complement a range of external data sources from both Scottish Government and Police Scotland. Additionally, as Scottish Government considers the future of the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), it becomes increasingly important for the Authority to have a consistent time series of data to inform its oversight and scrutiny of Police Scotland.
The Authority has put in place regular independent public polling of a representative sample of Scottish citizens, with a view to enhancing its understanding of public confidence. This is aligned to the Authority’s vision of policing in the public interest, by providing a sample which is representative of the demographic profile of Scotland; ensuring representation from diverse communities and those which could be considered seldom heard such as young people, or people from Black and Minority Ethnic Communities. The polling seeks views and levels of confidence in, and support for, policing in Scotland, both in general and related to specific areas of work.
The independent direct polling of Scottish citizens will provide the Authority with a better understanding of public trust and confidence and variation in this across the population, by analysing opinion from a broad representation of the demographic profile of the country. Providing these insights and demonstrating that they have been taken into account in shaping policing practices and activities, also builds awareness and understanding of, and subsequently informs support for, operational policing activity.
This paper presents initial findings from the first round of polling carried out during July/August 2022 and covers views on policing, road safety and online safety and data privacy. The full report can be found as appendix A. It should be noted that ‘Don’t know’ responses have been excluded from the statistics presented in the analysis.
In total there were 2,594 responses between 26th July and 1st August 2022. This is a sufficiently large enough sample to be representative of the Scottish adult population and allow a degree of disaggregation, which is central to upholding the validity of statistical observations and inferences.
