Anti-assisted dying polls breached rules, British Polling Council finds

In March, the polling company Whitestone Insight published findings from two polls on assisted dying involving 1,004 adults in Scotland and 2,080 adults across the UK. The polls included questions commissioned by anti-assisted dying campaign groups, such as Care Not Killing and Not Dead Yet. Findings from the polls were reported in the media and cited by parliamentians opposed to law change.

The British Polling Council (BPC) – which promotes transparency and standards in opinion polling – has now confirmed that the way Whitestone Insight published data from these polls was in breach of its rules. Those who cited the polls did so without being able to properly evaluate the findings, raising serious questions about how the polls may have misinformed parliamentary debates. 

Many of the questions in the polls were arguably leading in nature and used language such as “assisted suicide” without giving respondents a clear and accurate description of the proposals being debated in Westminster and the Scottish Parliament. This in itself casts doubt on the strength of the findings, but the BPC has no remit over the quality of the questions its members ask. The BPC does however have strict rules about what information polling companies must publish. 

Rule 2.3 of the BPC’s Objects and Rules states clearly that when polling results enter the public domain, its members must publish the wording of “any prior questions on the same or related topics” that were put to respondents.

It appeared that Whitestone Insight repeatedly failed to do this and acted without appropriate transparency. Instead, it published questions from its polls separately, which meant there was no way for people to know respondents in the polls had already been presented with other questions on the same subject. This is known as priming and doing this without full transparency is exactly what rule 2.3 is designed to prevent.

Dignity in Dying submitted a formal complaint to the BPC on 18 May. The BPC has now finished its investigation and concluded that Whitestone Insight did fail to abide by its rules. 

Polling has repeatedly found overwhelming public support for assisted dying. In a 2024 poll by Opinium, commissioned by Dignity in Dying, 75% of people supported law change, with majority support in every constituency in Great Britain. Research conducted by YouGov – independent of any campaign groups – has found a similar level of support for the specific provisions of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. The National Centre for Social Research says support for assisted dying has been “high and stable” for decades. England’s first ever citizens jury on assisted dying found support for law change strengthened when people had an opportunity to explore arguments on all sides of the debate.

Polling in this country is a self-regulated industry and while the BPC sets out rules for its members, it does not publish the outcome of investigations into the complaints it receives. In this case, while the BPC has upheld the complaint it has decided to take no further action against Whitestone Insight at this time. Whitestone Insight has updated its website to add more clarifying information, yet the issue remains that people may have interpreted the findings differently at the time of publication if Whitestone Insight had followed the BPC’s rules.

Opinion polling is under scrutiny, and this case is a reminder of how important it is for polling companies to follow the BPC’s rules, act with transparency and maintain professional standards.