The Seven Principles of Public Life - ESDS

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Where an attribute has been drawn from priorities identified in the Stage 1 research, it is shown in italics. Table 4 Importance of specific behavioural attributes for MPs and government ministers Base: All respondents (1,097 for importance; 1,095 for three most important) Note: Attributes drawn from priorities identified in the Stage 1 research, rather than being based on the Seven Principles, are shown in italics They should not take bribes (Selflessness/Integrity) They should tell the truth They should make sure that public money is used wisely They should not use their power for their own personal gain (Selflessness/Objectivity) They should be dedicated to doing a good job for the public (Selflessness) They should be competent at their jobs They should be in touch with what the general public thinks is important They should own up when they make mistakes (Accountability/Openness) They should explain the reasons for their actions and decisions (Accountability/Openness) They should set a good example for others in their private lives As noted above, nine of the ten attributes were rated ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important by more than 80 per cent of respondents. The exception – that MPs and government ministers should set a good example for others in their private lives – was nonetheless regarded as ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ important by 60 per cent of respondents and at least ‘quite important’ by 86 per cent. Rated as ‘Extremely Important’ Rated as one of the three most important attributes % % 88 46 75 53 73 43 72 34 64 37 58 23 56 28 55 17 43 12 31 5 (Tables 30 and 31) Private behaviour emerges as a lower priority for the public when compared with public conduct, but is still regarded by most people as being important for both national politicians and appointed officials. 40 BMRB International Report: Survey of public attitudes towards conduct in public life
It is clear, then, that all of these attributes are of some importance to the large majority of people, and this fact should not be overlooked in interpreting the findings. The rank order in which the attributes are placed, based on the proportion rating them as ‘extremely important’, shows issues of basic honesty (not taking bribes, telling the truth) and the ‘public service ethic’ (acting in the public interest, using public money wisely) emerging as key priorities, while private behaviour and, to a lesser degree, explaining actions and decisions are in general rated as somewhat less important. Honesty – defined in its broadest sense, rather than in the Committee’s sense of declaring and resolving conflicts of interest – and the public service ethic emerge as key priorities. In the terminology of the Seven Principles, Selflessness tends to feature towards the top end of the list, while Accountability and Openness feature further down. Of the attributes not directly drawn from the Seven Principles, ‘telling the truth’ emerges as a key priority, as it did at Stage 1 of the research. The rank order changes slightly when based on whether or not an attribute was considered one of the three most important, with “They should tell the truth”, mentioned by 53 per cent of respondents, the most likely of the attributes to be included as one of the three most important. This is perhaps not surprising, since ‘telling the truth’, like the value of ‘honesty’ identified at Stage 1 of the research, is an over-arching principle that could be seen as encompassing or superseding attributes such as owning up to mistakes. It is quite possible that, in choosing the three most important attributes, respondents will have tried to select attributes that could be interpreted as covering others. The relative importance to people of the different attributes becomes more apparent once they are asked to prioritise just three of the ten: at this point, being in touch with what the general public thinks is important; competence; owning up to mistakes; explaining actions and decisions; and private behaviour all emerge as lower priorities, when compared with the other attributes. In general the results suggest that the relative importance that people attach to the different aspects of behaviour covered in the research, and the rank order in which they place them, do not vary substantially between different groups in the population. The main exception to this rule concerns attitudes towards private behaviour, which varied by age and educational attainment. The importance attached to national politicians setting a good example for others in their private lives increased with age, the proportion regarding this attribute as extremely important ranging from 22 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 to 44 per cent of those aged 65 and over. In relation to educational attainment, those with higher education qualifications were least likely to consider private behaviour extremely important BMRB International Report: Survey of public attitudes towards conduct in public life 41
Page 1 and 2: Survey of public attitudes towards
Page 3 and 4: List of Tables Table 1 Key events d
Page 5 and 6: The Seven Principles of Public Life
Page 7 and 8: Acknowledgements The Authors would
Page 9 and 10: Executive summary Introduction In M
Page 11 and 12: 3 Public expectations and prioritie
Page 13 and 14: Figure 2 Statements attributed to a
Page 15 and 16: 6 Views on public sector recruitmen
Page 17 and 18: 9 Overall perceptions of standards
Page 19 and 20: Introduction This report presents t
Page 21 and 22: Stage 1 research The Stage 1 resear
Page 23 and 24: Research methods Stage 2: Questionn
Page 25 and 26: Chapters 3 and 4 address large part
Page 27 and 28: 1 The political context and influen
Page 29 and 30: More than eight in ten respondents
Page 31 and 32: When respondents were asked to say
Page 33 and 34: In order to obtain a measure of the
Page 35 and 36: In their place are responses associ
Page 37 and 38: 2 Trust in public office holders Th
Page 39 and 40: featured strongly as a perceived in
Page 41 and 42: 3 Public expectations and prioritie
Page 43: 3.2 Expectations of national politi
Page 47 and 48: Table 5 Importance of specific beha
Page 49 and 50: 4 Perceptions of the behaviour of p
Page 51 and 52: Figure 6 Proportion of government m
Page 53 and 54: The attributes on which MPs perform
Page 55 and 56: 4.2 Perceptions of the behaviour of
Page 57 and 58: 4.2.1 Honesty Figure 8 shows how th
Page 59 and 60: 4.2.3 Use of public money Figure 10
Page 61 and 62: 4.2.5 Summary A consistent pattern
Page 63 and 64: 5 MPs and voting in parliament The
Page 65 and 66: espondents thought that MPs should
Page 67 and 68: that they had an affinity with a po
Page 69 and 70: Table 9 What people think most MPs
Page 71 and 72: 6 Views on public sector recruitmen
Page 73 and 74: to public sector appointments: each
Page 75 and 76: While these results might suggest a
Page 77 and 78: Respondents who said that they knew
Page 79 and 80: The results show that there is a wi
Page 81 and 82: 7 Media scrutiny and the private li
Page 83 and 84: 8 Public office holders and account
Page 85 and 86: Figure 20 Confidence that wrongdoin
Page 87 and 88: The Committee recommends measures t
Page 89 and 90: 9 Overall perceptions of standards
Page 91 and 92: This is illustrated in Table 11, wh
Page 93 and 94: • Those with a higher education q
Page 95 and 96:
Table 13 Rating of standards of con
Page 97 and 98:
Table 14 Rating of standards of con
Page 99 and 100:
10 Summary and conclusions The purp
Page 101 and 102:
politicians with being competent an
Page 103 and 104:
References Bromley, C., and Curtice
Page 105 and 106:
Technical appendix Research methods
Page 107 and 108:
Stage 3: The national survey The su
Page 109 and 110:
and that 65 per cent of selected ad
Page 111 and 112:
Generally speaking, weights are cal
Page 113 and 114:
Agree that government ministers hav
Page 115 and 116:
• whether or not read one of the
Page 118 and 119:
COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS IN PUBLIC LI
Page 120 and 121:
SECTION B - EXPECTATIONS, PRIORITIE
Page 122 and 123:
5. They explain the reasons for the
Page 124 and 125:
READ OUT Now thinking about , senio
Page 126 and 127:
Honest Dishonest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dedi
Page 128 and 129:
ASK ALL SHUFFLE PACK F and SORT BOA
Page 130 and 131:
SHOW CARD E ASK FOR EACH TYPE OF PU
Page 133 and 134:
B17. SHOW CARD I i. How confident d
Page 135 and 136:
SECTION C. CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS SHO
Page 137 and 138:
ASK ALL SHOW CARD N C6. I’m now g
Page 139 and 140:
IF ‘YES’ at C13. C14. Which par
Page 141 and 142:
NS-SEC QUESTIONS on socio-economic
Page 143 and 144:
[ASK IF Work = Yes OR QCOMBINE =1 o
Page 145 and 146:
ASK ALL SHOW CARD EE - LARGE D4 Sta
Page 147 and 148:
ASK ALL SHOWCARD FF - LARGE D8. Do
show all

The Seven Principles of Public Life - ESDS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?