Legislative Policy Agendas in the United Kingdom, 1910-2010

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The policy agenda is the topics that public decision-makers pay attention to at any one time. It is comprised of major policy topics such as crime or health or minor topics such as prescription drug coverage and costs or riots and crime prevention. This research project has mapped the policies the UK government concentrated on over the last hundred years by coding data on Speeches from the Throne and Acts of UK Parliament since 1911, budgetary expenditure since 1910, public opinion since 1960, the front page of The Times newspaper since 1960, and Prime Minister's Questions since 1997. The aims of the project were:to measure and describe the policy agenda in the legislative arenas of the UKto examine whether the legislative agenda responds to public opinion and the interest of the mediato examine the extent to which UK attention to policy is punctuated or incrementalto compare change in agendas with comparable data from the rest of Europe as part of an ESF Eurocores collaborationto describe and analyse the legislative agenda of the Scottish Parliament in comparison with the United Kingdom ParliamentFurther documentation and information can be found on the Legislative policy agendas in the UK ESRC End of Award webpage and also the project website.Main Topics:The study consists of nine datasets:UK Acts of Parliament 1911-2008: the date of royal assent and long and short-titles of Acts of the UK and Scottish ParliamentsUK Media 1960-2008: front page headlines from The Times (London) newspaper, sampled every WednesdayPrime Minister's Questions 1997-2008: Prime Minister's Questions for the duration of the Labour governmentPublic Opinion (Speech Year) and (Yearly) 1959-2009 (two datasets): average responses to Gallup's 'most important problem' question and Ipsos-MORI's 'most important issue' by speech year and yearlyScottish Bills 1999-2008: the introduction, outcome and royal assent data as well as the outcome and short and long title of each billScottish Hearings 1999-2007: the year, committee type, type of hearing and title of each hearingSpeech from the Throne 1911-2010: speeches from the throne have been coded with a major and sub-topic codeUK Expenditure 1910-2007: UK budgetary expenditure data presented in millions of constant 2003 pounds