Public trust in Scottish Government drops

Public trust in the Scottish Government has dropped dramatically in the last three years, with 45 per cent of Scots expressing distrust.

The Scottish Household Survey for 2025 saw trust drop across seven institutions, with the biggest declines (nine percentage points) in the Scottish Government and local government.

The health service saw the joint biggest increase in distrust over the period (from 18 to 24 per cent), alongside local government (from 35 to 41 per cent), though trust in the health system remains high at 74 per cent.

Trust in the police was also 74 per cent, while distrust was the lowest across all institutions asked about, at 19 per cent. This gave the police the highest net trust rating of 54 percentage points.

Net trust was positive in six of the seven institutions: local government, civil service, education system, health system, police, and the justice system.

But net trust in the Scottish Government was neutral, with an equal number of adults expressing trust and distrust.

The UK Government was not included in this survey, though typically trust tends to be lower. Last year’s Scottish Social Attitudes Survey found only one in five people trust the UK Government.

Changes in trust between 2023 and 2025 generally occurred in the earlier part of the period. Trust levels stabilised in the Scottish Government, police, civil service and education system, while it slightly increased again for the justice system.

However, distrust increased for most institutions over the period and fewer people answered “don’t know”.

Trust varied by demographics, with younger adults (aged 16 to 34) expressing high levels of trust than older adults. Trust was also higher among minority ethnic groups.

Disabled people were most likely to report lower trust and higher distrust than the rest of the population, while people living in the most deprived areas were less likely to have trust in institutions.

Meanwhile a separate publication in transport and travel, also using Scottish Household Survey statistics, found a majority of people were satisfied with public transport in 2025.

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of people said they were very or fairly satisfied – the same as the last two years, though lower than before the pandemic (68 per cent).

Those who used public transport in the last month were most likely to say they were satisfied (70 per cent), but those living in rural areas were significantly less satisfied (42 per cent for remote rural; 45 per cent for accessible rural).

There was an increase in the number of people who said transport costs were fairly easy to afford, from 64 per cent in 2022 to 70 per cent in 2025.

ScotRail peak fares were temporarily scrapped between 2023 and 2024, before being permanently removed last year. Meanwhile, bus price caps are starting to be introduced in various parts of the country.

Bus and train patronage has risen slightly, though half of journeys continue to be made by driving. The Scottish Government has forced to drop a commitment to cut car use by 20 per cent by the end of the decade after accepting the target was “not realistic”.

Walking is the second most popular mode of transport, accounting for 28 per cent of journeys.