Public Standards

As part of my studentship I assist the Research Advisory Board (RAB) of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL).

The CSPL is an advisory non-departmental public body of the UK Government, established in 1994 to advise the Prime Minister on ethical standards of public life. It is currently looking into: (1) perceptions of procedures of local government; (2) the outside interests of MPs. I analyse data from the CSPL surveys as well as the surveys of the British Election Study (BES), to provide insight into how the public perceives the standards of public office holders in the UK, also in relation to outside events such as the EU referendum. The BES has been conducted since 1964, at every General Election, to find out how and why citizens vote the way they do. Its surveys specifically address: [1] political preferences and values; [2] dispositions to engage in different forms of political activity; [3] individual and household socio-demographic characteristics.