National Assembly for Wales survey shows 70% of Welsh Citizens Favour Devolution
One of the most comprehensive surveys undertaken in Wales to gauge public understanding of the Principality’s political landscape has shown that 70% of people want Wales to have either full or partial devolution.
The survey was commissioned by the National Assembly for Wales and carried out by Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Welsh Politics in collaboration with GfKNOP. Designed to gauge public understanding of the National Assembly and its role, it questioned over 2,500 people in June and July 2008.
When questioned, the majority of respondents (39%) wanted Wales to remain part of the UK but to have its own elected Parliament with full law-making and taxation powers. 31% of the people questioned wanted the Assembly to retain its current level of powers and 10% wanted Wales to become a fully independent nation.
Of the remaining respondents, 15% wanted to return to the pre-devolution status and 6% expressed a ‘don’t know’ opinion.
The survey indicated that this preferred constitutional status was based on a robust level of political understanding among respondents. When asked to identify the scope of the National Assembly for Wales’ law-making powers, 77% correctly identified that it “has powers to make laws in a number of areas, and these can be expanded with the agreement of the UK parliament’.
The survey also indicated that there is an increasing homogenisation of opinion and understanding across Wales. Previous surveys had seen variations in levels of support across various regions. However, the National Assembly for Wales survey indicated that there was more consistency in people’s aspirations towards devolution across the country, and aligned to this was a greater consistency in levels of understanding. (There was a modest regional difference in understanding across Wales on the Welsh Assembly’s law-making powers, with 72% of people in North Wales giving the correct answer, compared to 83% in South East Wales.)
However, the survey also indicated that many Welsh citizens are unclear about the distinction between the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government, with 52% admitting that they know only “a little” about the National Assembly for Wales.
Presiding Officer Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas said: “The results of this survey are extremely encouraging, and indicate that as the 10th anniversary of devolution in Wales approaches, we are as a nation continuing to develop a sense of our own unique political identity.
“It has always been the National Assembly for Wales’ aim to encourage participation in the democratic process, and the high level of understanding about the devolution settlement indicates that we are succeeding in our mission.
“However, there is still much work to be done. The lack of understanding about the different roles of the Welsh Assembly Government and the National Assembly for Wales must be addressed, and I would argue that much of this confusion is caused by nomenclature.
“I strongly urge the First Minister to begin to rebrand the Welsh Assembly Government as the Welsh Government, and end the unnecessary confusion that is dong nothing to help the rapidly evolving debate on democracy in Wales.”
Prof Roger Scully from the Institute of Welsh Politics at Aberystwyth University said: “The National Assembly for Wales commissioned us to undertake one of the most comprehensive surveys of its kind in Wales, and the results tell an interesting story.
“There is an undoubtedly high level of understanding about the broad devolution settlement in Wales, but the sheer size of our sample means we have the ability to interrogate the findings further, to get an even deeper reading of people’s understanding by region and by political subject matter.
”I am certain that the findings provide the National Assembly for Wales with an invaluable source of information and insight.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
1. The Institute of Welsh Politics (IWP) was commissioned by the National Assembly Commission to conduct research into public attitudes towards, and public knowledge of, the National Assembly for Wales, and GfKNOP were sub-contracted by the IWP to conduct the survey.
2. The research sought to address a number of specific topics:
Measuring broad public attitudes towards the National Assembly and Devolution, and towards giving greater powers to the National Assembly
Gauging levels of public interest in, and knowledge of, the National Assembly; and
Exploring sources of public knowledge about politics in general, and the National Assembly in particular
For all of these matters, the research team was asked to generate data that might be disaggregated by region or by other methods of classification.
3. The sample for the survey was generated by random digit dialling (RDD), taking in all possible landline numbers in Wales. The sample was stratified by postcode sector across the five electoral regions and potential respondents were screened to check for eligibility. The survey was carried out using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI).
4. A total of 2,538 interviews were conducted across Wales in June and early July 2008. To ensure the sample was representative of the adult population, quotas were set on Age, Gender within working status, and Assembly Region.
5. Survey data were weighted to correct for minor differences between the sample and the population profile. All respondents were offered the choice of being interviewed in Welsh or in English.