1.Appendix 1
Is the Public Aware of Democracy?
Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General to
the Speaker's Committee on the Work of the Electoral Commission
Part 1: The Electoral Commission seeks to increase
public participation in the democratic process
1.1 The Electoral Commission is an independent body
established by Parliament in 2000 to foster public confidence
and participation by promoting integrity, involvement and effectiveness
in the democratic process. It is responsible for:
- registering political parties
- monitoring and publishing significant donations
to parties
- regulating spending by parties on election campaigns
- reporting on the conduct of elections and referendums
- reviewing electoral law and procedures, and advising
the Government on changes
- advising those involved on the conduct of elections
and referendums
- reviewing electoral boundaries
- promoting public awareness of our electoral systems
1.2 The Commission has a statutory duty to promote
public awareness of electoral systems in the United Kingdom; systems
of local and national government; and the institutions of the
European Union.[7]
1.3 The Commission may carry out education and information
programmes of its own, or make grants to other bodies, so long
as the amount spent does not exceed a limit set by the Secretary
of State, currently £7.5m per annum.[8]
Actual expenditure was between £6.8 million in 2002-03
and 2003-04, and £7.3 million in 2004-05.
1.4 In its 2004-05 Corporate Plan, the Electoral
Commission described its statutory responsibility in terms of
a corporate aim to "encourage greater participation in and
increased understanding of the democratic process".[9]
The objectives supporting this aim were:
- To undertake a programme of research, which supports
the development of targeted voter awareness activities, through
understanding what motivates people to register or vote.
- To create effective advertising and public relations
campaigns to encourage and facilitate voting and registration.
- To develop and implement long term plans for
tackling disengagement among 'hard to reach' groups, especially
young people, black minority ethnic (BME) communities and support
the Youth Voting Networks.
- To manage the New Initiatives Fund: distributed
via grants to support schemes for increasing public awareness
and increasing turnout and to facilitate roll out or dissemination
of successful pilot projects.
- To promote public awareness of electoral and
democratic systems in the UK and the institutions of the European
Union.
- To develop the profile of the Commission ensuring
its responsibilities are understood and to encourage feedback
from stakeholders and other interested parties.
1.5 In its first report of 2004, the Speakers Committee
considered the Comptroller and Auditor General's examination for
2002-03 of the effectiveness of expenditure by the Electoral Commission
aimed at promoting public awareness. A summary of the progress
the Commission has made to implement recommendations made in the
200203 report is at Annex 2.
Our report covers the Commission's current
campaigns and other activity
1.6 While recognising that the Commission's overall
performance should not be judged on performance in this area alone,
the Speaker's Committee has asked the National Audit Office to
revisit the Commission's spending on promoting public awareness.
For this report we looked at the Commission's campaigns in 2004
and 2005. The 2004 'Don't do Politics' campaign sought to encourage
the electorate to register to vote, and provided information on
the European, London Mayoral and local elections taking place
in June of that year. In 2005 the Commission ran a spring registration
campaign and subsequent General Election campaign. The National
Audit Office methodology is described in more detail at Annex
3.
Overall conclusion on value for money
1.7 In our view, the Commission has used its resources
in raising public awareness in general effectively when judged
by measures such as recall rates and other industry measures for
its advertising. There does too, seem to have been an overall
positive effect on voter registration. Where the Commission could
do more is to pull together the various strands of its work with
disaffected groups to ensure that there is no overlap or duplication.
Given the Commission's size and the fact that it is not the owner
of any of the electoral processes, it should build on and expand
its influence on potential voters in hard to reach groups indirectly
through partners. And on a wider point, as there is no one lead
body responsible for promoting public awareness of democratic
processes, either within government or across the wider public
sector, there is an ongoing risk to value for money through duplication,
omission or uncoordinated activity.
Part 2 The Commission has set objectives for its
public awareness work
2.1 This report considers in turn each of the Commission's
objectives for its public awareness work and assesses their value
for money in terms of the effectiveness with which the Commission's
work has contributed to raising public awareness, in terms of
people being more aware of political issues and how they affect
their own lives; people wanting to take an active part and therefore
registering to vote; and taking part in local, national and/or
European elections.
2.2 Because in the United Kingdom there is no central
electoral register, it is difficult to track changes in national
registration levels over time. It is also difficult to identify
the extent of non-registration among different socio-economic
groups and in different areas. It should be borne in mind that
the Electoral Commission does not in any sense 'own' the electoral
register or run elections itself which means that neither voter
registration nor voter turnout can be used as a direct, straightforward
measure of the Commission's success. Rises and falls in both
are functions of other influences too
The Electoral Commission's research programme
informs its public awareness activities
2.3 The Electoral Commission both undertakes itself
and also commissions research to identify what motivates people
to register or vote. This includes an annual "audit"
of political engagement, conducted with the Hansard Society.
The findings of this research are used to underpin its public
awareness work.
2.4 In September 2005, the Commission published a
report identifying the nature and extent of non-registration,
using work done with the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
and MORI. This identified a number of key factors which indicated
the likelihood of being registered to vote or non-registration.
Groups least likely to be registered and therefore unable to
vote, are young people, ethnic minorities, itinerant or mobile
populations.
| 2 | Groupings of unregistered voters
|
| Group | % not registered
| Base |
| 16-17 year-olds
| 28 | 479
|
| 18-24 year-olds
| 16 | 2,211
|
| Inner London |
18 | 985
|
| West Midlands
| 4 | 2,498
|
| Indian | 6
| 413 |
| Black Caribbean
| 9 | 225
|
| Black African
| 37 | 116
|
| At same address six months prior to qualifying date
| 6 | 22,794
|
| At different address six months prior to qualifying date
| 33 | 1,169
|
| Students |
22 | 575
|
| Own property outright
| 3 | 6,979
|
| Renting from private landlord or letting agency
| 27 | 1,269
|
Source: Understanding Electoral Registration, The Electoral Commission,
September 2005
2.5 Research for the Commission by MORI in 2003 had identified
five 'political typologies' which have been used as the basis
for much of the subsequent work on public awareness (Figure 3).
The Electoral Commission aimed to target the group of the electorate
categorised as the "apolitical disconnected", with a
message that "politics is personal and affects everything."
The MORI research had also shown that the electorate will be
more positive about politics and more likely to vote if they have
interacted with their local politicians. In all campaigns the
Electoral Commission has attempted to make politics personal.
| 3 | Political typologies identified by MORI
|
| Authority Generation
| Nearly always vote in elections as they believe it is part of being a good citizen
|
| Disaffected |
Never had any interest in politics or voting
|
| Apolitical disconnected
| Care about local issues that affect them, such as hospitals and schools, but don't follow politics and likely not to vote
|
| Thwarted idealists
| Used to be interested in politics but not what it was. All parties are the same.
|
| Political trainspotters
| Important to vote as it makes a difference. Actively follow politics through the media.
|
Source: MORI: Public opinion and the 2004 elections. A study
of attitudes towards the European Parliament, London Mayor and
Assembly elections.
NAO Conclusion on research funded by the
Commission
2.6 The research carried out by the Electoral Commission
has identified those segments of the population less likely to
vote, in a way that is readily understandable to communications
experts, electoral experts and the general public. This is a common
sense approach which the Commission has been able to use to inform
its campaigns.
The Electoral Commission aimed to create
effective advertising and public relations campaigns to encourage
and facilitate voting and registration
2.7 We examined the campaigns carried out by the
Commission for the 2004 European Parliamentary and local elections
and the 2005 general election. Both these campaigns were based
on the research carried out by the Commission and carried a message
that politics is personal and affects everything. The 2005 campaign
built on the results of post campaign research for the 2004 campaign.
2.8 The aim of the Electoral Commission's campaigns
is that it should encourage the electorate to participate in politics,
rather than to be pure information campaigns (one reason being
that people respond more positively to information once they see
its relevance). The Commission uses research to test the likely
public response to different styles and types of advertisement
and campaign messages and to provide a framework for individual
campaigns.
2.9 Using the research identified above, the Commission
planned a mass media campaign, which is the second of its key
objectives, to raise awareness of the elections across the electorate,
taking account of the different types of voters, identified by
the MORI research at Figure 2 above. The "apolitical disconnected"
were targeted as a group that could be made to see the relevance
of politics to them if the campaign was appropriate.
2.10 The Commission also identified where other bodies
were working in raising public awareness, to avoid duplication
and ensure best use of resources.
2.11 Finally the Commission considered the approach
to the campaigns, including campaign evaluation before and after
the event and carried out a risk assessment of the campaigns.
These evaluations were used to plan subsequent campaigns and
to modify the approach as appropriate to take account of lessons
learned.
2.12 The Electoral Commission use the Central Office
of Information (COI) to run and manage its national advertising
campaigns, under a Service Level Agreement. The arrangement gives
the Commission access to media suppliers without needing to use
resources to tender for suppliers. COI's media buying power also
helps to ensure value for money. The COI regards the Electoral
Commission as an "intelligent customer", managing the
relationship in a professional way, making the most of the COI's
expertise and sector knowledge but also prepared to challenge
them where appropriate.
NAO Conclusion on whether the Commission
has produced effective campaigns
2.13 The Commission's approach to planning and carrying
out its campaign follows best practice and should help ensure
value for money from this expenditure.
2.14 The Commission uses a mixture of activity and
output measures together with outcome based measures, some proxy
based. For example, the Commission sets out to conduct and publish
regular tracking research. It uses these proxy measures in part
due to the difficulty of assessing the direct impact of the Commission's
public awareness work in terms of voter registration, because
the register is not held centrally and local authorities do not
have to respond to the Commission's requests for information.
There are difficulties in measuring changes in voter registration
and establishing causation as there are a number of organisations
working in this area.
2.15 The Commission has therefore used post-campaign
tracking to evaluate its campaigns, alongside intermediate measures
such as home mover registration returns, and downloads of registration
forms from the "aboutmyvote" website. The development
ultimately of outcome measures based on registration data would
be the most suitable but this is not yet possible. In the meantime
the Commission and the NAO will work together on developing more
performance measures. The Electoral Administration Bill gives
the Commission the opportunity to build further on its relationship
with local authorities. Ultimately this could lead to the closer,
more accurate monitoring of electoral registration data.
The Commission has developed and is implementing
plans for tackling disengagement among hard to reach groups
2.16 In its research, the Commission identified young
people and black minority ethnic communities as a target audience,
due to the low levels of voter registration among these groups.
(See Figure 2 above). A programme of outreach work was specifically
aimed at these groups, and was supported with advertising placed
in relevant press and radio in the run up to elections.
2.17 As well as its own campaign work and use of
grants under the New Initiative Fund, the Commission worked with
key organisations including the Prince's Trust, the Local Government
Association and the Hansard Society. This enabled the Commission
to make use of existing networks and establish new networks to
enable them to target identified hard to reach audiences, tailoring
its approach to each different body. For instance with the Local
Government Association, as part of the Local Democracy steering
group, the Commission advises them and helps channel resources
and activities in order to avoid replication.
2.18 . This approach should also reduce the risk
that arises from the number of other bodies also working in this
area of duplication or uncoordinated work. However, as there
is no designated lead authority for work in this area, a residual
risk of duplication or unco-ordinated activity remains.
2.19 Outreach work is also resource intensive, as
much is done on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. The Commission
has only limited resources in terms of staff and therefore in
terms of numbers of people reached the impact in this area is
likely to be small in relation to the size of the input.
2.20 Recognising both these constraints the Commission
has decided that to be more effective it will take a strategic
role and focus on capacity building with other bodies. This would
also enable it to manage the risk of duplication and uncoordinated
activity.
2.21 The Commission has also recognised the need
to manage effectively the relationships with stakeholders, and
produced a strategy to manage this. This recognises the key role
that working with others has in its work with hard to reach groups
and seeks to maximise the networks already in place, by working
through these organisations.
NAO Conclusion on outreach work with hard
to reach groups
2.22 Although measuring the impact on these hard
to reach groups is difficult, feedback from partners and those
involved has been positive. It would be useful to develop ways
of assessing the Commission's impact directly, perhaps by small
scale surveys and the NAO will work together with the Commission
to develop measures. It should be noted that in part the Commission
is trying to influence some of the most 'difficult to reach' groups,
especially young people who are not engaged in the political process
and its work needs to be seen in this light.
The Commission supports schemes for increasing
public awareness via the New Initiatives Fund
2.23 The Commission's New Initiatives Fund provides
funds for schemes that use innovative ways to raise public awareness.
Around £300,000 has been awarded in 2004 - 2005 under this
scheme.
2.24 A review of this scheme, carried out by the
Commission found that that although feedback on the work done
under the New Initiative Fund was positive, the grants tended
to go to projects aimed at young people. This overlapped with
the target audiences of the outreach work, meaning that other
hard to reach groups such as ethnic minorities might be overlooked.
The review also identified a risk that grants could be monopolised
by organisations experienced at bidding for funding which could
receive more money at the expense of others better placed to reach
particular groups.
NAO Conclusion on the New Initiative Fund
2.25 The NAO considers that the key step the Commission
can take is to bring together all aspects of its outreach work,
including projects funded under the New Initiative fund, and ensure
that all sections identified as currently disengaged from the
democratic process have effort focused upon them. The Commission
is addressing this under its new Communications strategy. Given
the Commission's size and the fact that it is not the owner of
any of the electoral processes, it should build on and expand
its influence on potential voters in hard to reach groups indirectly
through partners.
The Electoral Commission works to promote
public awareness of electoral and democratic systems in the UK
and the institutions of the European Union
2.26 The Commission measure the success of its work
to promote public awareness of the democratic process by considering:
- the recognition rates of the advertising;
- the level of agreement with the campaign message;
- the reported impact on the electorate (such as
claimed voting record and discussing politics);
- the number of registrations (remembering the
difficulties with taking this figure at face value); and
- the number of visits to the website and calls
to the call centre.
2.27 The first three of these measures are collected
by tracking research currently carried out by Ipsos, a market
research company. The tracking research shows that the Commission's
campaigns were having a positive effect on recognition over time.[10]
Figure 4: The Electoral Commission's TV recognition
rating is improving over time
| Registration 2004
| Elections 2004 | Registration 2005
| Elections 2005 | IPSOS Norm
|
| % Cut-through | 42
| 57 | 54
| 69 | 58
|
| TVRs | 272
| 411 | 305
| 519 | 500
|
Note: Ipsos, who carried out the tracing research, quote a "norm"
of 58 per cent for 500 TVRs. A TVR (television rating) is an
audience measurement based on reach or "opportunities to
see". One TVR represents 1 per cent of the target audience.
The Electoral Commission's 411 TVRs for the 2004 Elections means
that 41.4 per cent saw the advert an average of 10 times each
(or 20.55 per cent saw the advert 20 times each)
Source: Central office of Information
2.28 In addition the COI provided figures showing
expenditure and cut through the audience showing that the Commission's
campaigns are being effective.
Figure 5: Recognition of Electoral Commission campaigns
| Average for Comparison
| Electoral Commission |
| % Cut through
| Expenditure | % Cut through
| Expenditure[11]
|
| Initial campaign | 60%
| £2.25 million |
64% (2004) | £2.8 million
|
| Follow up campaign |
70 to 75% | £2 million
| 76% (2005) | £3.5 million
|
Source: Central Office of Information
Television advertising achieved a high
recognition rate
2.29 The Electoral Commission used television advertising
for its June 2004 campaigns with the aim of reaching as large
an audience as possible. The Commission conducted tracking research
after each campaign[12].
When compared to the "norm" for established brand names
of 58 per cent the 57 per cent who saw the Electoral Commissions''
campaign looks encouraging[13].
2.30 The Electoral Commission increased the number
of television adverts used in the final run up to the General
Election, and this is reflected in the highest recognition rate
ever achieved for the 2004 and 2005 campaigns (69 per cent of
respondents recognised the adverts, compared to 57 per cent in
2004).
Radio and press advertising achieved a
lower recall rate but was necessary to reach some target audiences
2.31 In the June 2004 campaign, the Electoral Commission's
press advertising, costing £1.5 million, proved to be less
successful. Eleven per cent of people surveyed could remember
the press adverts, whereas branded goods would expect a recognition
rate between 15 and 20 per cent. Focus groups carried out after
the campaign found that the adverts failed to stand out and contained
too much text.
2.32 For the 2005 campaigns, the Electoral Commission's
radio adverts had some success, with 18 per cent of respondents
having heard them at least once. The Commission reviewed its press
advertising, although the press adverts still achieved relatively
low recognition rates with 12 per cent of respondents remembering
them, almost as low as in 2004. Online adverts achieved a recognition
rate of 16 per cent. These figures are slightly below 16 per
cent, which is considered excellent by COI, as a 7 per cent recognition
level for online advertising is classified as 'good'.
2.33 To target ethnic minority groups, the Electoral
Commission also used press and online advertising in BME specific
media. The Electoral Commission confirmed that, although recognition
rates achieved by press and online promotions are lower than were
achieved by other media, it considers that these are the best
methods to reach particular difficult to reach target audiences
(especially young people). The Commission plans to continue using
press and radio advertising as appropriate to target these audiences.
It is likely they will also be required for regional campaigns,
where it is not possible to use television advertising.
Other media were cost-effective for raising
public awareness
2.34 As part of the June 2004 campaign the Electoral
Commission targeted home movers, renters and students (i.e. those
identified as 'hard to reach' - see Figure 2) by using the Royal
Mail redirection service, online banner advertising and advertisements
in the renter media (such as Loot). The campaign ran over a three
month period using national advertising, leaflets, a voter website,
a free helpline and public relations work.
2.35 The Royal Mail redirection service enabled the
Electoral Commission to achieve a known 11,730 registrations from
184 local authorities. It was likely that more registration forms
were returned, but the Electoral Commission were only able to
estimate a figure of 26,000 registrations, as not all of the local
authorities provided feedback. This exercise cost the Electoral
Commission £140,539, equivalent to £5.40 per registration
(based on the extrapolated figure for the number of registrations).
This cost per response compares favourably with the average government
cost of £20 per response.
NAO conclusions on the Commission's effectiveness
in raising public awareness
2.36 The ultimate measures of success for the Commission's
work would be the levels of voter registration rising and voter
turnout increasing. But this cannot happen before the Commission
has engaged the interest of the viewer or listener, so recall
rates for its advertising are also important indicators. The
television campaigns have scored well against industry norms in
terms of recall. Press and radio were less effective: the Commission
maintain that these media are especially important for hard to
reach groups and for regionally-based campaigns, where using television
advertising is not an option. The use of these other media should
be kept under review to ensure that the continued investment is
worthwhile.
2.37 The Electoral Commission considers its campaigns
to have been successful, in particular the "Don't do Politics"
campaign. The Electoral Commission's qualitative research carried
out after the 2004 campaign found that the electorate identified
with this message. Because of the success, the Electoral Commission
will carry on with this theme for future campaigns. The Commission
does need to monitor the response to these adverts to ensure that
the public's response remains positive.
2.38 Whilst the Electoral Commission aim to encourage
people to register to vote, it is very difficult for them to measure
changes in non-registration levels over time because of the lack
of a centrally held electoral register. This also makes it harder
to determine the impact of a registration campaign on registration
levels. However, in its 2005 General Election report, the Electoral
Commission stated that the number registered to vote had fallen
slightly by 0.35 per cent since 2000. However, it is not possible
to establish the extent of non-registration robustly without comparing
population and registration data and taking eligibility into account;
also, if there was indeed this slight decrease, it may have been
due to population changes or "cleansing" of the registers
by some local authorities. More thought needs to be given to
developing locally based campaigns in partnership with local authorities
to increase registration and to build on successful projects like
that focused on people moving house. The current Electoral Administration
Bill will allow Returning officers and Electoral Registration
officers to carry out public awareness work, offering the Commission
an opportunity to improve its partnership working at local level.
2.39 It is difficult to gauge changes in registration
levels, but voter turnout for the European and General elections
has increased:
- In the European elections held in June 2004,
turnout was 39 per cent[14]compared
to 24 per cent in 1999 which was a record low for a national election[15];
- In the London Mayoral and London Assembly elections
held in June 2004, turnout was 36 per cent[16]
compared to 33.5 per cent in 2000[17]
- In the 2005 General Election, turnout was 61
per cent compared to 59 per cent in 2001.
2.40 The Electoral Commission's "Don't do Politics"
campaign was one of a number of influences on turnout in the European
elections, (other factors included canvassing by political parties
and the fact that European elections were consistent with local
elections). The difficulty of influencing voter turnout is illustrated
by the Electoral Commission's own research which found that there
was no significant difference in the claimed voting record of
those who had and had not seen the Commission's advertising[18].
While the advertising did raise public awareness, the Commission
believes that a shift in propensity to vote is much harder to
generate and affected by a number of factors, such as the political
context, political party campaigning, perceptions of how effective
one's vote is, and the perceived closeness of an upcoming election.
The Commission seeks to raise its profile,
to ensure that its responsibilities are understood and to encourage
feedback from stakeholders and others.
2.41 The Electoral Commission is the only body within
the UK to have a statutory duty to promote public awareness of
the democratic process, but government departments and public
sector organisations have taken on responsibility for public awareness
work. Some charities and other organisations have also become
involved in encouraging people to participate more in politics
and voting.
2.42 We spoke to the Hansard Society, the Prince's
Trust, the Central Office of Information, and the Local Government
Association about the work of the Electoral Commission. We also
spoke to London Elects and the UK Office of the European Parliament,
who worked with the Electoral Commission to help promote the June
2004 elections.
2.43 Some stakeholders suggested that the Commission
could do more. The Local Government Association expressed the
view that the Electoral Commission could do more to promote public
awareness at the local level; for example, in local council elections,
by tailoring materials to the circumstances within a particular
area. This is consistent with the research showing that voters
are more likely to be positive about politics if they are engaged
with their local politicians, and if they can see how politics
has an impact on their local community. By continuing to build
on relationships with electoral administrators this would enable
them to add a local element to the Commission's national perspective.
2.44 The Electoral Commission's campaigns can be
adapted by the local Electoral Returning Officers, but only if
the returning officers wish to use Electoral Commission campaign
materials, such as leaflets and posters. Whilst all materials
are publicised and available to all administrators on an equal
basis year round, take up varies across the UK. The Electoral
Commission also publishes guidance for electoral administrators
on its website.
2.45 Suggestions were also made by stakeholders that
people are receptive to receiving information about European Institutions
and that the Electoral Commission could do more to promote public
awareness of European institutions. The latest Eurobarometer
survey found that 19 per cent of people in the EU claimed to have
no knowledge of the EU and around one third of respondent felt
that there was not enough coverage on TV, press or radio. However,
it is recognised that this will be challenging to achieve as the
Commission's research (Public Opinion and the 2004 elections)
shows a significant lack of interest amongst the general population
in European elections. The Commission also tends to dedicate its
resources to pending electoral events and in the absence of a
European vote e.g. the proposed referendum, has not dedicated
resources to such a campaign.
2.46 Currently the Electoral Commission's campaigns
encourage people to find out for themselves more information about
particular institutions on its website. The Commission also uses
its Outreach work to tell young people about European institutions.
However, only a small proportion of the electorate visit the
website and use the call centres to find out more.
NAO conclusions on the Commission's effectiveness
in raising its profile and getting its responsibilities understood
2.47 Whilst the Electoral Commission has a statutory
duty to promote public awareness of the democratic processes,
it does not have overall responsibility for work in this area
and no government department or organisation has overall responsibility
for promoting voter registration or voter awareness. This can
lead to several different organisations all carrying out similar
activities. For example the Department for Constitutional Affairs
planned to carry out work to encourage electoral registration
in 2006. There was no formal mechanism to inform the Commission
of this. As there is no overall strategy or leadership there
is the risk of overlap and unnecessary duplication of effort or
omission of key areas. The electorate could also become confused
if similar messages are coming from different bodies or worse
if they receive conflicting information.
2.48 The Electoral Commission recognises that the
risks associated with the lack of strategic oversight for voter
awareness and other electoral matters. In order to mitigate this
risk, it sits on steering groups which aim to develop common goals.
However these steering groups are usually set up for a particular
activity. For example, for the 2006 London registration campaign
the DCA set up a formal project board which includes the Commission.
There is no forum for a general discussion about the strategy
and direction for voter awareness work, away from work for specific
campaigns. This may be in part due to the lack of a clear lead
responsibility.
2.49 We found that the Electoral Commission has a
good reputation as an independent body with a statutory duty to
promote public awareness. In particular, the Electoral Commission
is seen to be the organisation best placed to promote public awareness
because it has funds specifically for this purpose and is likely,
due to its independent status, to be trusted by the general public.
This puts the Commission in an ideal position to provide impartial
information to the electorate without the risk of being thought
to have a hidden agenda.
7 Section 13(1) of the Political Parties, Elections
and Referendums Act 2000 (an extract is at Annex 1). Back
8
The annual limit is specified by order made by the Secretary
of State with the consent of the Treasury, under section 13(6)
of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Back
9
Electoral Commission Corporate Plan 2004-05 to 2008-09, HC 797,
22 July 2004. Comparable objectives in the Commission's 2005-06
Corporate Plan are to: make a demonstrable contribution to increased
public awareness of the electoral process; carry out a review
of the effectiveness and results of community-based public awareness
work; and maintain and enhance the Commission's position as an
independent, authoritative body with a key role in public life
to safeguard and promote the democratic process. Back
10
Ipsos survey between 500 and 600 people at key stages during
the campaign to determine whether there have been any changes
in recognition or reported behaviour. Ipsos carried out tracking
research for each of the main campaigns in 2004 and 2005. Back
11
Expenditure is expenditure with the COI Back
12
See Figure 4 for results of the tracking research. Back
13
Ipsos, who carried out the tracking research, quote a "norm"
of 58 per cent for 500 TVRs. The Electoral Commission achieved
57 per cent with 411 TVRs. A TVR (television rating) is an audience
measurement based on reach or "opportunities to see".
One TVR represents 1 per cent of the target audience. The Electoral
Commission's 411 TVRs means that 41.4 per cent saw the advert
an average of 10 times each (or 20.55 per cent saw the advert
20 times each). Back
14
Appendix, Table A1, page 124 of "The 2004 European Parliamentary
elections in the United Kingdom". by the Electoral Commission,
December 2004 Back
15
Paragraph 4.2, page 101 as above Back
16
Taken from the Guardian Error! Bookmark not defined. Back
17
Taken from the London Elects website Error! Bookmark not defined.
Back
18
Page 24, Ipsos report Back
|