Scottish politics and opinion polling
Ipsos has been tracking Scottish public opinion for decades. We combine:
- high quality question design and insightful interpretation
- a range of options for data collection to meet your needs and budget, from telephone, to our ‘gold standard’ online probability KnowledgePanel, to standard opt-in panels, and
- access to the Ipsos polling archives, allowing you to see how views have changed or how they compare with views elsewhere in the UK (or globally).
Our voting intention polling was among the most accurate at the 2021 Holyrood election, but we are never complacent. We continue to evolve our approaches and have recently transitioned our Scottish voting intention polling to our gold standard random probability KnowledgePanel.
Senior Team
 | Dr Emily Gray, Managing Director, Ipsos Scotland, leads our team of public affairs researchers in Scotland. She brings over two decades’ experience of quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research and evaluation for public, private and voluntary sector organisations. Emily is a highly experienced survey researcher and has led our opinion polling in Scotland over the last eight years. She is also a seasoned presenter and comments on public opinion on TV and radio; over the past two years she has appeared on all major UK broadcast channels (including BBC Newsnight, STV News, Channel 4 News and Sky News) and spoken on a range of radio programmes and podcasts. |
 | Rachel Ormston, Research Director, Ipsos Scotland, has worked in applied research in Scotland for over 20 years, and at Director level since 2007. Prior to joining Ipsos in 2014, Rachel was Co-Head of Social Attitudes Research at NatCen, where she was co-director of the Scottish Social Attitudes survey for over a decade. She has an excellent understanding of the challenges of designing and interpreting surveys on complex issues. Rachel has regularly written and spoken about opinion polling in the UK and Scottish media. |
Case studies
Scottish Political Monitor
Our Scottish Political Monitor has been running for 15 years, and is one of the longest running sources tracking voting intention in Scottish and UK elections.
Ipsos KnowledgePanel
Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel is the UK’s largest online random probability panel, providing fast turnaround findings for organisations looking for robust, representative samples. KnowledgePanel can reach representative samples in Scotland and the other constituent nations of the UK, making it ideally suited to comparative research. It can also be used to reach ‘niche’ audiences: recent examples include owners of dogs and cats for a study exploring antimicrobial resistance in pets, and people who have recently dealt with the estate of a deceased family member.
Scottish Omnibus survey
Our Scottish Omnibus survey is an economic ‘omnibus’ option for those wanting a quick snapshot of attitudes in Scotland. Recent clients have included: British Heart Foundation Scotland, Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance, Crisis, and Homes for Scotland. We also use our Scottish Omnibus to run our ‘Scottish Pulse’ survey, which regularly tracks attitudes to the Scottish parties, leaders and policy.
