• Our work

      Themes

    • Brexit and Parliament
    • Future Parliament
    • Governance of Parliament
    • Making better law
    • Parliaments around the world
    • Parliamentary scrutiny
    • Political engagement
    • Representation
    • publications

    • Publications Home
    • Procedural and constitutional guides
    • Briefings
    • Reports
    • Submissions
    • projects

    • Delegated Legislation Review
    • Audit of Political Engagement
    • services

    • Statutory Instrument Tracker®
  • About

      about

      who we are

    • What we do
    • Our history
    • Our governance
    • contact

    • Our people
    • Contact us
    • Contacts for the media
    • careers

    • Jobs
    • subscribe

    • Insight Notes newsletter
    • Hansard Society newsletter
  • Blog
  • News
  • Events
  • Journal
  • Scholars
Hansard Society logoHansard Society logo
  • Our work

    • Themes

      • Brexit and Parliament
      • Future Parliament
      • Governance of Parliament
      • Making better law
      • Parliaments around the world
      • Parliamentary scrutiny
      • Political engagement
      • Representation
    • publications

      • Publications Home
      • Procedural and constitutional guides
      • Briefings
      • Reports
      • Submissions

      projects

      • Delegated Legislation Review
      • Audit of Political Engagement

      services

      • Statutory Instrument Tracker®
  • About

    • about

        who we are

      • What we do
      • Our history
      • Our governance
      • contact

      • Our people
      • Contact us
      • Contacts for the media
      • careers

      • Jobs
      • subscribe

      • Insight Notes newsletter
      • Hansard Society newsletter
      • Join our newsletter

        Get the latest updates on our research and events, together with expert comment and analysis, delivered to your inbox each month.

        You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our privacy policy here.

        Thank you!

        You have been successfully added to our newsletter list.

        Follow us

        :( Oops! Something went wrong...

        Please reload the page and try again.

        Insight Notes

        Subscribe to our regular Insight Notes on parliamentary data, procedures and the legislative process at Westminster, including updates on Brexit Statutory Instruments - in your inbox every sitting Monday afternoon.

        You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our privacy policy here.

        Thank you!

        You have been successfully added to our Insight Notes email list.

        Follow us

        :( Oops! Something went wrong...

        Please reload the page and try again.

      Follow us

  • Blog

    Blog

    • blog

      • Despatch Box Blog
  • News

    News

    • news

      • News Home
  • Events

    Events

    • events

      • Events
  • Journal

    Journal

    • journal

      • Parliamentary Affairs
  • Scholars

    Scholars

    Handshake
    publications / reports / 2010

    What's Trust Got To Do With It? Public Trust in and Expectations of Politicians and Parliament

    Share this

    Did the expenses scandal really cause a collapse in public trust of politicians and the political system? Is a fall in trust key to the problematic relationship between voters and politicians? Rather than trust, this 2010 report identified the larger challenge as the fall in the relevance of politicians and political institutions to people’s everyday lives.

    Cover image for What's Trust Got to do with it? Public Trust in and Expectations of Politicians and Parliament

    Download the full report

    Download

    Politicians have rarely been trusted. The 2009 expenses scandal therefore did not lead to a collapse in trust in politics and politicians, because levels of trust were already so low. Public dissatisfaction with politics is based on deeper problems. Rather than trust, this report – published for the start of the first post-expenses-scandal Parliament in 2010 – identified the more urgent challenge as being the decline in the relevance of politicians and political institutions to people’s everyday lives.

    What’s Trust Got To Do With It? highlights the fact that distrust of politicians is longstanding – pre-expenses-scandal research in 2004 showed already that only 27% of the public trusted politicians ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’. The same question, asked post-expenses-scandal in 2009, showed only a marginal decline in trust, to 26%. The expenses scandal did not therefore lead to a collapse in trust in politics and politicians, because levels of trust were already so low. In addition, for a majority of the public (53%), allegiance to a political party overrides perceptions of wrong-doing by candidates – party supporters would still vote for such figures.

    The report identifies declining rates of satisfaction with the country’s system of governance as a major challenge for politicians: while 60% of the public think Parliament ‘is worthwhile’, only 19% see it as an influential institution in their everyday lives. Furthermore, 85% of the public believe they have ‘not very much influence’ or ‘no influence at all’ over national decision-making. This perceived lack of influence is rooted primarily in the belief that politicians do not listen to what the public has to say and that the political system does not allow the public to have influence.

    What’s Trust Got To Do With It? recommends that MPs should concentrate on reforms to tackle lost satisfaction, relevance and influence rather than trying to address trust. Policies introduced to address issues of trust through the provision of greater transparency and accountability (such as Freedom of Information legislation) often have the opposite, unintended, effect of engendering a culture of suspicion rather than trust.

    On its publication, the report’s author, Dr Ruth Fox, commented:

    “The events of the past year have opened up an opportunity for a serious dialogue about what kind of representative democracy we want for the future. Politicians, by focusing on policies designed to engender trust, have missed the bigger, broader, underlying concern – the declining levels of public satisfaction, perceived influence on decision-making and confidence in the relevance of Parliament to their lives. MPs in the new Parliament must tackle essential questions about the role and function of politicians and Parliament – if it’s just business-as-usual, public attitudes to politics and Parliament may plummet still further.”

    Executive summary

    1. Politicians have rarely been trusted. The expenses scandal did not therefore lead to a collapse in trust in politics and politicians because levels of trust were already so low.
    2. For a majority of the public allegiance to or preference for a party trumps perceptions of wrong-doing by a particular candidate.
    3. MPs should concentrate on reforms to tackle lost satisfaction, relevance and influence rather than trying to address trust.
    4. Parliament has seen a marked decline in public confidence – only 19% see it as an influential institution on their everyday life.
    5. The public are more positive about political and governmental institutions of which they have direct experience. Familiarity has a strong influence on favourability.
    6. Declining levels of satisfaction and influence are linked to a perception that decisions are made at a distance by unaccountable bodies – e.g. judges, the EU, multi-national corporations.
    7. Declining investment in local and regional media will impact detrimentally on public perceptions of politics in their local area, and will have national repercussions given the link between familiarity and favourability.
    8. Those parliamentary reforms proposed after the expenses scandal that link the political institution with the local community are most likely to be effective at deepening the relationship between Parliament and the public – e.g. petitions; recall of MPs.
    9. Standards agenda reforms to improve transparency and accountability – e.g. Freedom of Information (FoI), Standards in Public Life – have helped engender a culture of suspicion rather than trust.
    10. The public hold MPs to a higher ethical standard than they hold themselves. This is not consistent with the view that politicians should also be ‘ordinary people’.
    11. Politics lacks a professional body to police and protect it, and serve the collective interest of members. Unlike most other professions, politicians also engage in direct partisan criticism of each other on a daily basis which has a corrosive impact on public perceptions.
    12. An accepted ethical code might be drawn up for MPs and embodied in a revised parliamentary oath.
    13. Marketisation of politics and the culture of consumerism it feeds off damages politics and politicians. Levels of satisfaction and confidence are linked to the fuelling of public expectations about politics and politicians. The more people know about politics the more it fails to meet their hopes and expectations.
    14. The public lack proper understanding of what an MP does – they can readily identify the role and function of a judge, doctor, or teacher but most find it more difficult to identify for an MP.
    15. There is no clear public consensus about what the role and function of MPs should be. There are significant differences of view that break along class lines.
    16. Parliament is a stronger body today – vis-a-vis the executive and in terms of exercising its scrutiny function – than in the past. However, it is not as well regarded as in the past.
    17. The public want more independently-minded MPs willing to vote against the party line, but they recoil from any party that is perceived to be split.
    18. There is no ‘silver bullet’ for tackling public distrust and disengagement with politics. However, engendering a greater familiarity with politics, politicians and Parliament, and building on the more positive views people already have of their local experiences, may offer the best chance of success.

    Enjoy reading this? Please consider sharing it

    Related

    'First virtual PMQs and Ministerial statement on Coronavirus', © UK Parliament / Jessica Taylor.
    blog / 04.12.20

    Why the exclusion of pregnant MPs from the House of Commons during Covid-19 matters – for them and for others

    Covent Garden Market, Westminster election, 1 Jully 1808 (designed and etched by Thomas Rowlandson and Auguste Charles Pugin), This print records temporary wooden stands erected outside St.Paul's Church in Covent Garden Market to allow politicians running for Parliament in the Westminster election to address voters. On this occasion a large crowd has gathered, carrying banners and spilling out into the square, with some figures perched on a roof at right to listen to a speaker. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
    blog / 13.11.20

    Controverted elections: how disputed results used to be part and parcel of English political and parliamentary… life

    Britain Votes 2019 cover image
    journal

    Britain Votes: The 2019 General Election

    Cover image for the Parliamentary Affairs journal
    journal

    Parliamentary Affairs (vol 73, issue 3, 2020)

    The House of Commons debating the Withdrawal Agreement during the Saturday-sitting on 19 October, 2019
    news / articles

    Even with a majority, getting Brexit done on deadline will be no mean feat

    People walking over Westminster Bridge towards the UK Houses of Parliament
    news / articles

    The public think politics is broken, and are willing to entertain radical solutions

    School pupils in an assembly with their hands up.
    projects

    Mock Elections 2019

    People walking over Westminster Bridge towards the Palace of Westminster, Houses of Parliament
    projects

    Audit of Political Engagement

    Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons Chamber, 23 September 2020. (Copyright: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor)
    publica… / briefings / 2021

    The marginalisation of the House of Commons under Covid has been shocking; a year on, Parliament’s role must u…rgently be restored

    'First virtual PMQs and Ministerial statement on Coronavirus', © UK Parliament / Jessica Taylor.
    publica… / submissions / 2020

    Procedure under Coronavirus restrictions: written evidence to the House of Commons Procedure Committee

    Join our newsletter

    Get the latest updates on our research and events, together with expert comment and analysis, delivered to your inbox each month.

    You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our privacy policy here.

    Thank you!

    You have been successfully added to our newsletter list.

    Follow us

    :( Oops! Something went wrong...

    Please reload the page and try again.

    Top three

    Vladimir Putin address to citizens 2 April 2020 Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vladimir_Putin_address_to_citizens_2020-04-02.jpg Attribution: 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Source: The Russian Presidential Press and Information Office (http://kremlin.ru/)
    blog / 22.02.22

    Russia-Ukraine crisis: how are sanctions Regulations made and how does Parliament scrutinise them?

    Tractor spraying chemicals on crops
    blog / 08.04.22

    Genetically modified organisms: Primary or delegated legislation?

    projects

    Delegated Legislation Review

    Latest

    Photo of Acts of Parliament in the Parliamentary Archives, Houses of Parliament, Westminster
    publications / reports / 2022

    Compendium of Legislative Standards for Delegating Powers in Primary Legislation

    The scope and design of the delegation of legislative powers in any Bill affects the long-term balance of power between…Parliament and Government. The House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (DPRRC) scrutinises all such delegation. This report distils standards for the delegation of powers from 101 DPRRC reports from 2017 to 2021.

    Compendium of Legislative Standards for Delegating Powers in Primary Legislation
    Tractor spraying chemicals on crops
    blog / 08.04.22

    Genetically modified organisms: Primary or delegated legislation?

    A Statutory Instrument comes into force on 11 April that changes the legal requirements for the release of certain types… of genetically modified plants. Some argue that the changes should have been made by primary, rather than delegated, legislation. Where does the boundary between the two lie?

    Genetically modified organisms: Primary or delegated legislation?
    Bird's-eye view of the Palace of Westminster, UK Houses of Parliament
    blog / 04.04.22

    Constitution and Governance in the UK: Parliament and Legislation

    The Brexit process, the pandemic and the approach of the Johnson Government have all tended towards Parliament’s margina…lisation and the accretion of executive power. For UK in a Changing Europe’s report on the constitutional landscape, we show how – in the legislative process and control of public money and executive action, including delegated legislation.

    Constitution and Governance in the UK: Parliament and Legislation
    Roman Abramovich's yacht
    blog / 15.03.22

    What role does the UK Parliament play in sanctioning an individual? [Video]

    Sanctions are imposed on an individual in two stages - by Ministers first making regulations and secondly designating th…e individual, using a power in those regulations. Parliament has a role in the first stage, but not the second.

    What role does the UK Parliament play in sanctioning an individual? [Video]
    publications / submissions / 2022

    Written evidence to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee: the Restorat…ion and Renewal of Parliament

    Our submission to the Public Accounts Committee highlighted the financial and practical challenges that MPs face in deci…ding the fate of Parliament’s Restoration and Renewal programme. We particularly questioned the viability of the proposal to continue operating the House of Commons Chamber in the middle of a building site.

    Written evidence to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee: the Restoration and Renewal of Parliament
    Houses of Parliament, Westminster, UK
    publications / submissions / 2022

    Written evidence to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee: Retained E…U Law: Where next?

    Our submission to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee inquiry into retained EU law (REUL) placed the issue…in the context of our Delegated Legislation Review. It discussed REUL’s diversity and amendment; the people and organisations to whom REUL amendment may matter; and parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation arising from amending REUL.

    Written evidence to the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee: Retained EU Law: Where next?
    Prev
    Next
    • Recent pages
      • What's Trust Got To Do With It? Public Trust in and Expectations of Politicians and Parli…publications / reports
    • Home
    • Contact us
    • What we do
    • Jobs
    • Privacy policy
    • Site map

    Join our newsletter

    Get the latest updates on our research and events, together with expert comment and analysis, delivered to your inbox each month.

    You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our privacy policy here.

    Thank you!

    You have been successfully added to our newsletter list.

    Follow us

    :( Oops! Something went wrong...

    Please reload the page and try again.

    Copyright © 2022 Hansard Society • Charity No: 1091364 • Registration No: 4332105.