Daily Research News Online no. 3654 - Health and Crime Preoccupy British Public

Health and Crime Preoccupy British Public

December 16 2004

Apart from the just-departed Home Secretary himself, the recent focus of UK Government announcements has been security - tackling crime and terrorism. With the forthcoming Queen's speech due to set out Labour's legislative programme for the session before the next election, BPRI has been examining whether this mirrors the concerns of the UK public.

BPRI surveyed 100 MPs on the issue and then put the same questions to the general public via Lightspeed Research's online panel. Health is most widely mentioned by members of the public as the number one concern (34%), closely followed by crime (31%), with education and the environment way down on 14%. Conservative MPs are most likely to mention crime; 'other' MPs including LibDems are focused mostly on health and the environment; while Labour MPs are split four ways.

Views of the Most Important Long-Term Issue Facing Britain (% choosing each)

	General Public	MPs	Labour	Conservative	Other
Health	34	24	25	20	31
Crime	31	25	22	40	8
Education	14	23	27	20	8
Environment	14	26	28	10	54

Source: BPRI / Lightspeed Research

100 MPs were interviewed during October 2004 - the 100 are a representative sample of the composition of the House and part of the BPRI Political Opinion Panel. Lightspeed Research interviewed a representative sample of 500 members of the general public online during October 2004.

BPRI's web site is at www.bprigroup.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.