Is the public confident in Parliament’s ability to scrutinise government on the evidence behind decisions?

Only a third or less of people think MPs are equipped to ask the Government the right questions about evidence on critical policy areas including the use of Artificial Intelligence (26% confident versus 60% not confident), energy policy (31% confident versus 60% not confident), healthcare (33% confident versus 59% not confident), the economy (34% confident versus 57% not confident) and climate change (30% confident versus 60% not confident).

• Many people feel unclear about what politicians are basing their decisions on, something that has continued since the pandemic.
  Other findings were:
• Around half of Britons continue to think politicians pay too little attention to evidence (7% too much, 51% too little, 24% about right, 19% don’t know) or to public opinion (15% too much, 54% too little, 20% about right, 12% don’t know), while 1 in 3 think they pay too much attention to what they think is right (35% too much, 25% too little, 24% about right, 16% don’t know).
• There has also been a drop in people confident that politicians are making the right decision if they change their course of action because of new evidence: only 27% say it makes them more confident (compared to 42% last year), 29% say it makes them less confident (compared to 20%) last year, and 33% say it makes no difference (compared to 23% in 2022).

Evidence Week in Parliament was created in 2018 in response to the public’s interest in policy evidence, with community groups and individuals wanting to know the justification for everything from rules on standing at football matches to which green technologies are subsidised. It builds on established research and information work in Parliament by The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and the Commons and Lords Libraries to support greater use of evidence by parliamentarians.

This year (3-7 July), MPs, peers and their staff can sign up for fast briefings and training on emerging issues including:

• Whether large-scale production of hydrogen can achieve net zero targets,
• Switching to ammonia as a shipping fuel
• How to spot a deepfake, and
• ‘Track the economy’, a real-time economic data tracker from the University of Nottingham

as well as cybersecurity at sea, what could AI in farming do, the use of ChatGPT and equality in digital healthcare.

Tracey Brown, Director of Sense about Science, said:

MPs do not need a scientific background but to improve public confidence in their questioning, they do need rapid access to research on questions such as  whether it’s possible to produce the hydrogen conversion promised in emissions policies or the effect of rolling out digital health services. Voters care a lot about whether questions are being asked by Parliament. That is why they open Evidence Week with their questions.
I’m delighted to see the UK’s fantastic research community doing so much more to support Parliament and its information services in answering them. But we also need to make sure their offices have the skills and resources needed to handle data and policy evidence on all the varied and complex issues that land on MP’s desks every day.

Gideon Skinner, Head of Politics Research in Public Affairs at Ipsos, said:

Issues such as the economy, healthcare and climate change are very important to Britons, and they want politicians to be able to pay more attention to both evidence and public opinion when making decisions about these and other policies.  But the task facing MPs is not easy – our survey also shows signs the public are becoming less forgiving when politicians change course, even if that’s based on new information. This suggests the public still think politicians need to find the right balance of sticking to their principles while also acting on the evidence, in order to lead to the best decisions for society.

Greg Clark MP, Chair of the Common’s Science Innovation and Technology Committee, said:

Evidence Week reminds all members that Evidence Matters to people, and that as elected representatives it’s our job to hold government to account by scrutinising the data and information that life-affecting decisions made in this house are based on.

Prof Grant Hill-Cawthorne, House of Commons Librarian, said:

Accessing and using robust, trustworthy and politically impartial evidence, information and analysis is essential to the daily work of parliamentarians, which is why the House of Commons Library and POST provide bespoke briefings, topical research, and access to information services. We welcome the return of Evidence Week for 2023 and the opportunity to support awareness of good evidence and how to access it throughout Parliament.

Technical Note

Ipsos interviewed a representative quota sample of 1,078 adults aged 18-75 in Great Britain. Interviews took place on the online Omnibus between 9-12 June 2023. Data has been weighted to the known offline population proportions. All polls are subject to a wide range of potential sources of errors.

Sense about Science

Sense about Science is an independent charity that works to ensure the public interest in sound science and evidence is recognised in public life. A small team working with thousands of supporters, from world leading researchers to community groups, we focus on socially and scientifically difficult issues where evidence is neglected, politicised or misleading.