In the News
| Published date | 01 April 2013 |
| Date | 01 April 2013 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/2041-9066.12002 |
| Subject Matter | In the News |
matter to me’ (54 per cent in 2013,
compared to 49 per cent last year).
The audit, due to be released in full
in the spring, is based on face-to-face
interviews conducted across the UK.
Dr Ruth Fox, Director and Head of
Research at the Hansard Society, at-
tributed the improved public percep-
tion of political life to the increased
profile of select committees at West-
minster: ‘These latest Audit findings
can perhaps be explained by the in-
creased profile and topicality of select
committee activity over the last year.
The issues they have tackled such as
phone hacking and taxation of mul-
tinational corporations have chimed
with the public and may be really
helping to improve public percep-
tions of Parliament’s effectiveness.
‘But there is still scope for further
improvements,’ Dr Fox said. She
In the News
called on MPs to support the im-
plementation of recommendations
arising from the Liaison Committee’s
recent inquiry into the effective-
ness, resources and powers of select
committees.
Political Youth
Young people in the UK are
relatively disengaged in politics
compared with their contem-
poraries in Western Europe. Across
eight forms of political engagemen-
tonly Portugal had a lower level of
youth participation than Britain,
according to research conducted
by James Sloam at Royal Holloway,
University of London and featured
in this issue of Political Insight (see
page 4).
Parliamentary
Perceptions
There are signs that the public’s
perceptions of politicians and West-
minster may finally be improving
from the damaging revelations of the
expenses scandal.
Forty-seven per cent of the popu-
lation believe that the ‘UK Parlia-
ment holds government to account’,
according to the initial results of the
Hansard Society’s Audit of Political
Engagement 10. This is figure is up
nine percentage points from the last
audit, in 2012.
There was a five percentage point
rise in those agreeing with the state-
ment ‘the UK Parliament debates and
makes decisions about issues that
Press Association
47 per cent of
the population
believe that the
‘UK Parliament
holds
government
to account’
Select committees have helped improve public perceptions of Parliament, a new report suggests
2
Political Insight
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