Survey of Members of the Scottish Parliament December 2009 Maintaining relations with Members Good relations with MSPs Q What are the most important things companies and organisations can do to develop and maintain good relations with MSPs? All MSPs 2008 Communicate on subjects relevant to constituency 31% 29% Personal contact 26% 19% Write briefly/succinctly 22% 11% Advance warning before a problem 16% 5% Communicate on subjects of interest to MSPs 16% 20% Regular contact 15% 18% More email 14% 13% Meetings/seminars 13% 7% Maintain ongoing dialogue 13% 3% Base: All MSPs (73), Government MSPs (25) and Opposition MSPs (48), 3rd September – 6th November 2009 Good relations with MSPs Q What are the most important things companies and organisations can do to develop and maintain good relations with MSPs? Government Opposition All MSPs Communicate on subjects 48% relevant to constituency 22% 31% 28% Personal contact 24% 26% 16% Write briefly/succinctly 26% 22% Advance warning before a problem 20% 14% 16% Communicate on subjects of 16% interest to MSPs 16% 16% Regular contact 16% 15% 15% More email 8% 14% 17% 8% 13% Meetings/seminars 16% Maintain ongoing dialogue 12% 13% 14% Base: All MSPs (73), Government MSPs (25) and Opposition MSPs (48), 3rd September – 6th November 2009 Role of industry and commerce - 1 Q To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? “Industry and commerce do not pay enough attention to their social responsibilities” Strongly Tend to Tend to Strongly agree agree Neither disagree disagree All MSPs 7 45 28 18 2 Government 16 44 40 Opposition 2 45 21 28 4 Base: All MSPs (73), Government MSPs (25) and Opposition MSPs (48), 4th September – 6th November 2009 Role of industry and commerce - 2 Q To what extent do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements? “The main responsibility of companies is to perform competitively, even when this means reducing the number of people they employ” Strongly Tend to Tend to Strongly agree agree Neither disagree disagree All MSPs 8 43 15 31 3 Government 4 28 24 36 8 Opposition 10 51 10 29 Base: All MSPs (73), Government MSPs (25) and Opposition MSPs (48), 4th September – 6th November 2009 Judging organisations Q What are the most important factors you take into account when making your judgement about specific companies and organisations? All MSPs 2008 Treatment of employees 39% 31% Acts with honesty and integrity 32% 35% Employment providers 32% 32% Whether in my constituency 30% 21% Social responsibility 26% 28% Quality of products and services 22% 26% Community involvement and commitment 20% 26% Innovative and forward thinking 20% 13% Competitiveness 19% 29% Treatment of customers 18% 20% Financial performance 17% 25% Quality of management 12% 21% Base: All MSPs (73), 3rd September – 6th November 2009 Judging organisations Q What are the most important factors you take into account when making your judgement about specific companies and organisations? Government Opposition All MSPs 44% 39% Treatment of employees 36% 36% 32% Acts with honesty and integrity 30% 24% 32% Employment providers 37% 24% 30% Whether in my constituency 33% 32% Social responsibility 22% 26% 28% Quality of products and services 19% 22% 16% Community involvement and commitment 23% 20% 20% Innovative and forward thinking 19% 20% 16% Competitiveness 21% 19% 24% Treatment of customers 15% 18% 4% Financial performance 24% 17% 8% Quality of management 14% 12% Base: All MSPs (73), Government MSPs (25) and Opposition MSPs (48), 3rd September – 6th November 2009 Industry Familiarity and Favourability Mean Favourability Health 1.05 Social Enterprises Housing Associations Scottish The Third Sector Manufacturing Arts 0.8 Environment Forestry Sport Tourism Rural Energy land Built development 0.55 use and infrastructure Rail Scottish Airports Aviation Drinks 0.3 Pharmaceuticals Building Motoring Insurance Societies 0.05 Financial Services -0.2 -0.45 -0.7 Banking 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 3 3.1 3.2 Mean Familiarity Base: All MSPs asked (71), 3rd September – 6th November 2009 Organisation familiarity and favourability Mean Favourability 1.3 1 – EventScotland 2 – Heritage Lottery Fund 1.2 3 – Virgin Trains The NHS 1.1 4 – Nationwide 5 – NHS Quality Improvement Scotland 1 6 – Standard Life 7 – Office of Fair Trading Audit Scotland 0.9 8 – Microsoft 0.8 9 – Scottish Arts Council NHS Health Scotland 10 – sportscotland Clydesdale Big Lottery Fund 0.7 11 – Historic Scotland Which? Bank 12 – Lloyds TSB Scotland SCVO SAC Boots 0.6 5 FCS Scottish HIE Royal Renewables 2 FoE BT Scotland 0.5 Pharmaceutical SIC 10 British Wind Energy 3 Society 11 First ScotRail 0.4 Association (BWEA) LLTNP 6 8 1 SNH 4 SPT 0.3 Renewable Consumer Focus GSK Micropower Energy SSSC Scotland Scottish Water Council Foundation SDS 9 NTS 0.2 HSBC SEPA Amey 7 12 Passenger Focus FETA Tesco VisitScotland 0.1 Barclays Ofgem ATOC Bear Scotland Scottish Enterprise 0 Network Rail -0.1 The Office of Rail COSLA Lloyds Banking Diageo -0.2 Regulations (ORR) Group Transport Scotland Scotland -0.3 Halifax Bank of -0.4 Scotland RBS HBOS -0.5 0.3 0.8 1.3 1.8 2.3 2.8 3.3 Mean Familiarity Base: All MSPs asked (familiarity) who have at least heard of each company (favourability), 3rd September – 6th November 2009 Appendices Statistical Reliability Only a sample of the ‘population’ has been interviewed so we cannot be certain that the figures obtained are exactly those we would have found, had all Members been interviewed (the ‘true’ values) For any percentage given, however, we can estimate ‘confidence intervals’ within which the true values are likely to fall. For example, if the survey shows that 50% of MSPs believe that ‘prospects for the economy in Scotland will improve over the next twelve months’ (which 73 MSPs were asked), we can be 95% sure that the ‘true’ value would be between 43% and 57%, i.e a margin of 7% on each side Similar margins for other percentages and sub-groups of the respondents are given in the following table. It should be remembered that, in any case, the ‘true’ finding is more likely to be towards the centre of the possible range of error than towards the margins For similar reasons, apparent differences in results relating to sub groups may, if small, not necessarily reflect genuine attitudinal differences. We can be 95% sure that differences exceeding those in the second table are genuine, or ‘significant’ differences Statistical Reliability Margins (%) which are just significant (at 95%) - approximate percentage to which margin relates Sample sizes being compared (sub-groups or trends) 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% or 90% or 80% or 70% or 60% (2008 v 2009) 73 v 73 6.5 8.6 9.9 10.6 10.8 (Government MSPs v Opposition MSPs) 25 v 48 10.0 13.3 15.3 16.3 16.6 Statistical Reliability 95% Confidence Intervals Sample size 10% or 90% 20% or 80% 30% or 70% 40% or 60% 50% ±±±±± (All MSPs - 73) 4.6 6.1 7.0 7.5 7.6 (All Government - 25) 8.3 11.1 12.7 13.6 13.8 (All Opposition - 48) 5.6 7.4 8.5 9.1 9.3 Methodology Fieldwork dates: 3rd September – 6th November 2009 – All MSPs were contacted to ensure that those interviewed closely represent the profile of the Scottish Parliament – Number of respondents: 73 (SNP 25, Labour 28, Conservative 11, Lib Dem 7 and Others 2) – Interviews were conducted face-to-face The total sample interviewed is closely representative of the Parliament. Data have been individually weighted where necessary to reflect the true balance by party Where results do not sum to 100%, this may be due to computer rounding, multiple responses, or the exclusion of “don’t know” categories Participants Participants (all individual responses anonymous) Scottish National Party Scottish Labour Party Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party Jamie Hepburn Jackie Baillie Mary Scanlon Stewart Maxwell Richard Baker Bill Aitken Ian McKee Claire Baker David McLetchie Aileen Campbell Margaret Curran Jamie McGrigor Christina McKelvie Helen Eadie John Scott Andrew Welsh Karen Gillon Murdo Fraser Bruce Crawford Marlyn Glen John Lamont Angela Constance Trish Godman Derek Brownlee Christopher Harvie Charlie Gordon Alex Fergusson Bob Doris Hugh Henry Ted Brocklebank Brian Adam James Kelly Jackson Carlaw Alasdair Allan Andy Kerr Alasdair Morgan Johann Lamont Scottish Liberal Democrats Sandra White Lewis Macdonald Mike Rumbles Linda Fabiani Kenneth Macintosh Mike Pringle Bill Kidd Frank McAveety Margaret Smith John Wilson Tom McCabe John Farquhar Munro Rob Gibson Michael McMahon Jim Hume Michael Matheson Pauline McNeill Jamie Stone Maureen Watt Des McNulty Hugh O'Donnell Bill Wilson Mary Mulligan Stuart McMillan Elaine Murray Scottish Green Party Kenneth Gibson John Park Robin Harper Plus 3 Members Cathy Peattie Patrick Harvie who asked not to Richard Simpson be named Elaine Smith David Whitton.