The Seven Principles of Public Life - ESDS

(21 per cent), those with no qualifications most likely to do so (44 per cent). It should be
added that, while older, less educated people attached more importance than others to
politicians maintaining high standards in their private lives, they still considered this aspect
of behaviour as being the least important of the attributes covered in the research.
3.3 Expectations of senior public officials
Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the same set of attributes for senior
public officials. This group was defined for respondents as being “people with senior
management jobs in government departments, local councils or other public bodies, who make important
decisions about the service they work in. For example, the head of a council’s housing department, the chief
executive of an NHS hospital, a chief police officer, etc. These people have not been elected to their jobs, but
have had to apply for them.” The question was asked in the same way as for MPs and
government ministers. The results are summarised in Table 5.
42 BMRB International Report: Survey of public attitudes towards conduct in public life