Should polling organisations be legally required to publish full sample sizes and raw figures?
ElectionsEnds 15 Oct 10h 8m left

Should polling organisations be legally required to publish full sample sizes and raw figures?

No UK law requires pollsters to publish sample sizes or raw data. Disclosure is governed by the voluntary British Polling Council rules, which oblige members to publish sample size, dates, method and client, with fuller tables where practical. In September 2026 the Council said a Channel 4 News investigation into Reform UK polling by member JL Partners showed breaches of its client-disclosure rule.

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22 Opinions

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The Labour-Minded Steward
Voted yesLeft lean

Information is knowledge. Proper scrutiny need to be available.

The Public Health Liberty Guard
Voted noLeft lean

Publishing the data won’t make viewers read it. Sadly it is obvious that people don’t read beyond a headline let alone research facts behind them. So polling would be no different.

JohnnyBoy· 527
The Housing Sovereigntist
Voted yesRight lean

Not much to say on this but it makes a lot of sense and will reveal partisan polls which are designed to confuse & obfuscate not enlighten.

GlynnJ· 298
The Unifier
Voted noC. Right lean

Polling organisations are private companies, they all have a "iean." Just take their data with a pinch of salt.

The State-Wary Right
Voted noRight lean

No. Because they'll lie about it anyway.

Seneca· 390
The Lean-State Pragmatist
Voted yesRight lean

An obvious transparency measure. Polls are often deliberately misleading

AndyDevon· 246
The Frugal Libertarian
Voted noRight lean

Yes, opinion polls can (and do) manipulate question order and data to portray a preconceived position. They are essentially a pointless exercise: the only poll that matters is the one at a ballot box. Therefore, no requirement to legislate.

Slawomir· 933
The Accountable Capitalist
Voted yesRight lean

Polls become propaganda tool, so every step to change it will be welcome. Obviously more important than sample size is sample selection - and this also should be provided.

PedroS· 246★
The Lawgiver
Voted yesLeft lean

This was made originally to get RefNation to publish figures but they wanted the wording changed.

The Hard-Border Constitutional Conservative
Voted yesRight lean

I think so. So we can draw our own conclusions. As long as it does not mean they lose revenue.