Open Government Partnership

Approaching the debate on trust in Scottish Government – Guest post from Lilli Wolland Blomberg, PhD intern

December 5, 2025 by Open Government Team No Comments | Category Uncategorized

In August 2025 we welcomed Lilli Wolland Blomberg from the University of Edinburgh Law School as a PhD intern to the Open Government Team. Her research focus is to examine the knowledge on trust in government. We see a global trend of declining trust in governments, which is argued to pose a challenge for democracies and democratic resilience. Lilli has been mapping the existing knowledge and gaps about trust, as well as reflecting on how to approach the declining trust in Scottish Government. The end goal with the internship is to produce a report on trust in Scotland. This will form part of the wider work on developing a trust and transparency strategy, included in the fourth Open Government Action Plan (2026-2030).

This is what Lilli has to say about the work so far.

Background and personal goal for the internship

It might not be very clear how an atrocity criminologist, from Norway, ended up doing an internship on trust for the Scottish Gover

Lilli Wolland Blomberg, PhD Law Candidate, University of Edinburgh

nment. But that is the very point of this SGSSS-led internship, to engage with a new and different topic to my PhD. The topic of trust appealed to me as it is something we all, regardless of background, have a perception of and experience with. For instance, the experience of Covid-19 was an extraordinary situation which demonstrated the importance of trust in government. I realised I had a high level of trust to mine. As a Norwegian and criminologist, I hope that my perspectives and views can benefit the report I am to write on trust. And that the report becomes a useful tool towards achieving the goal of improving trust and transparency in Scotland.

What is the problem?

Trust is key for social and economic development (Kovacs et al, 2024). Or put in another way, lack of trust is argued to represent a risk to the very fabric of democracy and democratic resilience. Today we are witnessing a global decline of trust in governments.

Scotland is no exception, as the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (2023) shows that trust has decreased from 61% (2019) to 47% (2023), when the Scottish public were asked whether the Scottish Government works in Scotland’s best interest. The same survey raises that one third of Scottish people (35%) express that the Scottish Government are good at listening to people’s views before making decisions.

Why is there a lack of trust in the Scottish Government?

There exists a wide range of interdisciplinary knowledge on trust. The OECD Report (2024:16) suggest that responsiveness, reliability, fairness, integrity, and openness are related to trust in governmental institutions. These drivers of trust form a good starting point for us to better explain and explore why the Scottish public question the government’s abilities. It is also important to understand how socio-economic and political factors influence public’s trust.

How can we approach the problem?

To increase trust there is a need to enable more openness and engagement opportunities. One such initiative was made through the recent workshop with the Open Government Steering Group, to develop the fourth Open Government Action Plan (2026-2030).

Another way to improve trust is for governments to prioritise trust as an indicator for measuring governmental performance. This includes prioritising trust as an objective in policy-making and working on developing more accurate measurements of trust.

What does trust mean to you?

There is still time to share your views on what trust means to you by responding to the survey created by the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), civil society, and Scottish Government.

Your response will help shape the next Open Government Action Plan with trust and transparency being a core theme of the plan.

Respond to the online survey

References and recommended readings:

Khan, S. D. (2014). The Khan Review – Threats To Social Cohesion And Democratic Resilience: A New Strategic Approach. Available at: https://www. gov. uk/government/publications/the-khan-review-threats-to-social-cohesion-and-democratic-resilience (Accessed 6 November 2025).

Kovacs,R. Dunaiski, M., Galizzi,M.M., Grimalda,G., Hortala-Vallve,R., Murtin, F., and Putterman, L. (2024). The determinants of trust: findings from large, representative samples in six OECD countries. Economica, 91(364): 1521-1552. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12549.

OECD (2024), OECD Survey on Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions – 2024 Results: Building Trust in a Complex Policy Environment. OECD Publishing, Paris. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/9a20554b-en (accessed 20 November 2025).

OECD (2017), OECD Guidelines on Measuring Trust. OECD Publishing, Paris. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264278219-en (accessed 20 November 2025).

Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (2023)- Attitudes to Government, the Economy, and the Health Service. Director of Performance, Delivery and Resilience (Scottish Government) (Accessed 7 November 2025).

Comments