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)

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

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

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