Ged Hiscoke
Trust without knowledge? UK intelligence agencies and the public trust conundrum
Hiscoke, Ged; Ward, Stephen; Lomas, Daniel
Abstract
Intelligence agencies operating in modern-day liberal democracies are dependent on the public for support. In recent years, the UK’s intelligence and security agencies have adopted a public facing role aiming to build ‘trust’ and developing wider public ‘knowledge’. Using a specially commissioned YouGov survey, we offer the first detailed analysis of public trust and knowledge of the UK’s agencies, finding that, whilst trust in the agencies is relatively high, levels of trust changes depending on age and political partisanship. Whilst wider public engagement is necessary and should continue, we find that high levels of trust are based on low knowledge of the agencies.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Apr 2, 2025 |
Online Publication Date | May 2, 2025 |
Deposit Date | Jun 18, 2025 |
Publicly Available Date | Jun 18, 2025 |
Journal | Intelligence and National Security |
Print ISSN | 0268-4527 |
Electronic ISSN | 1743-9019 |
Publisher | Routledge |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Pages | 1-28 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2025.2491239 |
Additional Information | Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=fint20; Received: 2024-10-28; Accepted: 2025-04-02; Published: 2025-05-02 |
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