Audit of Political Engagement 10

The Audit of Political Engagement is the only annual health check on our democratic system. Now in its 10th year, each Audit measures the ‘political pulse’ of the nation, providing a unique benchmark to gauge public opinion across Great Britain with
regard to the political system.
 
This year’s report explores a worrying decline in the public’s propensity to vote. Just 41% of the public now say that in the event of an immediate general election they would be certain to vote – a decline of seven percentage points in a year and the lowest level in the debate of the Audit. Twenty percent of people say they are certain not to vote. For young people, the picture is even worse; just 12% are certain to vote, down from 30% two years ago.

Combined with the low turnout levels at recent local elections and the disastrous turnout at the polls for Police and Crime Commissioners in November 2012, these findings are deeply worrying for the health of our democracy.

Future News - communicating parliamentary democracy in a digital world

The landscape of print, broadcasting and social media is changing rapidly and how it alters affects Parliament’s ability to communicate and engage with the public it serves. A new report from the Hansard Society – #futurenews The Communication of Parliamentary Democracy in a Digital World – explores these strategic communication trends and how Parliament needs to respond in order to keep pace and ensure it has a voice in the political debate commensurate with its role at the apex of our democracy.

#futurenews examines changing patterns of news consumption, the public’s attitude to news about politics in general, and Parliament in particular, and how and where they access such news. The report finds that, given the UK’s position at the forefront of mobile device and smart-phone ownership, and with one of the highest penetration rates for social networks anywhere in the world, Westminster has a huge opportunity to enhance public knowledge and understanding of its work. But if it gets it wrong, there could be serious consequences for public engagement in the future.

Assembly Line? The Experiences and Development of new Assembly Members

What is it like to make the rapid transition from being a member of the public to being an elected Member of the National Assembly for Wales? How do AMs learn the ropes in a new and challenging political environment? How do they decide what they are going to do and how they are going to do it?

The Hansard Society has been examining the role and work of the new AMs through surveys, interviews, and personal observation of their work, supplemented by discussions with Assembly staff, to try and answer these questions and many more.

Audit of Political Engagement 9: Part Two - The media and politics

Public satisfaction with media reporting of politics increases

But tabloids do little to advance political engagement of their readers

The second part of this year's Audit of Political Engagement report shows that public satisfaction with media reporting of politics has risen: 45% claim to be satisfied compared to just 38% who said the same two years ago.

But two thirds of the public perceive the coverage of politics in the tabloid media to be far more negative and distorting in its portrayal of politics and politicians than in all other media outlets. Notably, tabloid readers themselves strongly agree with this negative view of their own newspapers of choice.

What next for e-petitions?

A Petitions Committee is needed to deal with petitions and respond to public expectations.

A new Briefing Paper What next for e-petitions? published today by the Hansard Society examines the problems with the current e-petitions system and calls for Parliament to take over ownership and responsibility for e-petitions from the government. It also calls for the House of Commons to establish a new Petitions Committee to deal with public petitions in the future.

Audit of Political Engagement 9: Part One

Disgruntled, disillusioned and disengaged

New Hansard Society research shows people turning away from national politics

Is coalition politics bad for political engagement?

The 2012 Hansard Society annual Audit of Political Engagement, shows that the public’s growing sense of indifference to politics as highlighted in last year’s Audit has hardened into something more serious as public attitudes become more negative:

Building on success - why we need to review the select committee system

Select committees are one of the great success stories of Parliament. Over the last 30 years they have become the principal mechanism through which the House of Commons holds the executive to account and have influenced the direction of government policy and legislation. Reforms in the past decade have increased their status and sharpened their operation, particularly the recent change to elect committee chairs and members, and events such as the banking crisis and the phone hacking scandal have given committees and their work a higher profile than ever before.

However these successes mask underlying questions about the functioning of the select committee system. Many new demands have been placed on committees in recent years, their workload is increasing and public expectation of them has been heightened, and yet resources are finite and will come under increasing pressure in the future as a result of budget cuts.

Beyond the headlines: Has trust in politicians really declined?

The Committee on Standards in Public Life’s (CSPL) biennial survey of public attitudes towards conduct in public life has just been published, to headlines proclaiming a decline in public trust in politicians – indeed an increasing decline in the words of committee chairman Sir Christopher Kelly. But is this really the case?

New MPs struggle with work/life balance - but most see politics as a long-term career

A new briefing paper, A Year in the Life: from member of public to Member of Parliament, finds long working hours and the competing demands of Westminster and constituency are proving detrimental to the family life of new MPs - yet despite this, most aspire to make politics a long-term career.

Evidence from the A Year in the Life study shows:

• The 2010 new intake of MPs initially expected a 60-hour week (plus eight hours travel) but six months on were working a 69- hour week;

•They split their working time 63% in Westminster and 37% in their constituencies - but constituency casework takes up the largest share of their time (28%), followed by constituency meetings/events (21%) and the Commons Chamber (21%);

•A vast number of the new intake report that long working hours and Westminster/constituency demands have a detrimental effect on their personal and family lives - comments such as ‘overwhelming', ‘devastating' and ‘a struggle' are common;

•Over half of new MPs (56%) took a salary cut on becoming an MP.

Improving the House of Lords working practices

The Parliament & Government programme has produced a short briefing paper on the working practices of the House of Lords, in advance of an oral question in the Lords about progress on proposed reforms.

On 26 April 2011 the Leader’s Group examining the working practices of the House of Lords published its wideranging recommendations for reforms to enable the Lords to better fulfil its core functions of scrutinising government, reviewing legislation and debating topical and important issues of the day. It is vital that these reforms are now considered for adoption by the House and not left to languish.