Legally required to release polling data?

April 22, 2010 7:19 AM

Is there a legal requirement for an organisation in the UK to release data from opinion polls they have conducted?

If a pressure group or political party pays a polling company e.g. Ipsos Mori or ComRes to conduct a poll in a particular constituency or area, are they obliged by law (through the Electoral Commission or otherwise) to release the resulting data?

posted by knapah to Law & Government (3 answers total)

Response by poster: (Specifically if they have published any conclusions from it in campaigning literature)
posted by knapah at 7:34 AM on April 22, 2010

Best answer: Not to my knowledge, no. Generally, you'll be lucky to get the cross tabs (summary of sorts) of the data, and even that isn't required in the UK, or anywhere I am aware of. Political parties in particular will not even release what questions were asked - during a campaign they will try out various messages and will not want that information available to the other parties.
posted by zenon at 7:39 AM on April 22, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, I'd guessed as much, was just curious after hearing a comment from someone that suggested they did.
posted by knapah at 1:58 PM on April 26, 2010