FOI reference: FOI-2025-3163
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I am writing to request access to information held by the Office for National Statistics regarding political polling and survey work conducted over the past 18 months relating to UK government or political parties.
Specifically, I am requesting:
1. All polling or survey reports undertaken or commissioned by the ONS relating to UK government or political party performance, reputation, or policy issues within the last 18 months.
2. The full demographic breakdown of respondents for each polling or survey exercise, including but not limited to:
Age brackets
Gender
Ethnic background
Geographic location (regional breakdowns)
Socioeconomic groupings (income, education level, employment status)
3. Methodology documents for each polling or survey exercise, including:
Sample sizes
Weighting and stratification techniques used
Response rates
Selection criteria for respondents (how sampling frames were constructed)
Any exclusions or adjustments made post-survey
4. Commissioning details – whether any of these surveys were commissioned by external bodies (e.g., government departments, political parties, or third-party contractors) and, if so, which organisations commissioned them.
5. Data on regional or demographic targeting used in these surveys (e.g., whether certain groups were deliberately oversampled or undersampled).
6. Any internal evaluations or notes regarding the representativeness, reliability, or limitations of these polls.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Please find below our responses to the questions you have raised.
1. ONS collects data on public attitudes and social trends via its monthly Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. This survey is available for Government departments to commission content on a range of issues. The results from the survey are published in a monthly "Public Opinions and Social Trends" release. Occasionally, ad hoc data requests are also published on the ONS website. A list of these can be found on our website.
2. Our monthly Opinions and Lifestyle publish data at an all-adult level (adults aged 16 and older in Great Britain). Where possible, we publish data by age groups (16-29 years old, 30 to 49 years old, 50 to 69 years old, and 70 and older) and by sex (male / female). Occasionally, we publish more in-depth releases of data based on pooled "waves". All breakdowns are derived from a range of survey questions (E.g. asking respondents about their date of birth to produce age bands), and due to the self-reported nature of the survey may be subject to some respondent bias (E.g. around occupation / employment data). These breakdowns vary depending on the release, with our most recent release based on pooled waves covering the following additional breakdowns based on self-reported data:
Age bands
16 to 29
30 to 49
50 to 69
70 and over
Sex
Male
Female
Country
England
Wales
Scotland
Region
North East
North West
Yorkshire and The Humber
East Midlands
West Midlands
East of England
London
South East
South West
Ethnicity
Asian or Asian British
Black, African, Caribbean or Black British
Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups
White
Any other ethnic group
Disability status
Disabled
Non-disabled
Don't know or Prefer not to say
Employment status
Employed
Self employed
Employed or self-employed including unpaid family worker
Unemployed
Economically inactive - retired
Economically inactive - other
Occupation group
The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) is a common classification of occupational information for the UK, in which jobs are classified by their skill level and content into the following nine major groups:
Managers, directors and senior officials
Professional occupations
Associate professional occupations
Administrative and secretarial occupations
Skilled trades occupations
Caring, leisure and other service occupations
Sales and customer service occupations
Process, plant and machine operatives
Elementary occupations
Employed but occupation is unknown
IMD Quintiles
The Index of Multiple Deprivation, is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas in England. The IMD ranks every small area in England from 1 (most deprived area) to 32,844 (least deprived area). Deciles are calculated by ranking the 32,844 small areas in England, from most deprived to least deprived, and dividing them into 10 equal groups. These range from the most deprived 10 per cent of small areas nationally to the least deprived 10 per cent of small areas nationally. For this analysis, to ensure robust sample sizes, we have further grouped deciles into quintiles. IMD is derived based on the postcode provided by the respondent when completing the survey.
1st quintile - Most deprived
2nd quintile
3rd quintile
4th quintile
5th quintile - Least deprived
Tenure group
Own it outright
Currently paying off a mortgage or loan used to buy the property
Shared ownership (also known as 'part-own part-rent')
Pay rent to the council, housing association, or charitable trust
Pay rent to a private landlord
Live here rent free (Including living rent-free in a relative's or friend's property but excluding squatting)
All renters
Education level
Degree or equivalent
Below degree level
Other qualification
None
Parental status
Parent of a dependent child
Not a parent of a dependent child
Household composition
1 adult only with no dependent children
2 adults only with no dependent children
3 adults or more with no dependent children
1 adult only and at least 1 dependent child
More than 1 adult and at least 1 dependent child
3. All methodological steps applied to the Opinions and Lifestyle survey can be found in our latest "Quality Methods and Information" document.
4. Over the last 18 months, Government departments who have sponsored content on the survey included:
Cabinet Office
No10 Data Science
NHS England
Department for Health and Social Care
Department for Transport
Department for Education
HMRC
Go Science / Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Ministry of Defence
5. All methodological steps applied to the Opinions and Lifestyle survey can be found in our latest "Quality Methods and Information" document.
6. Every year, the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey is subjected to an internal review as part of our Statistical Quality Maturity Model. This highlights the strengths and weakness of the survey design, with areas for development. As part of this, we publish any strengths and weakness about the design, including around representativeness, reliability or limitations, as part of the Survey's Quality Methods and Information documentation, available on the ONS website.