New President for British Polling Council

Press Releases

7th October 2008

The British Polling Council is very pleased to announce that Professor John Curtice has agreed to become the new President of the organisation.

John takes over the role from John Barter who has been President since the formation of the British Polling Council in 2004. John wishes to retire from the role and give the new incumbent ample time to assume the responsibilities of President before the next election. All members of the BPC would like to thank John for his stewardship of the BPC over the past few years and wish him well in his retirement.

John Curtice is Professor of Politics and Director of the Social Statistics Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde. He was co-director of the British Election Study, the principal academic survey based study of voting behaviour, from 1983 to 1997, and has been a co-editor of NatCen’s British Social Attitudes series since 1994. He has written and commentated widely in the media and in academic publications on polls and polling, and worked at some stage in collaboration with all the current major polling companies. He was also a member of the Market Research Society’s enquiry into the conduct of opinion polls after the 1992 general election.

The code of the British Polling Council has been effective in ensuring that consumers of poll information have sufficient information available on which to judge the validity of results. John will be working together with the officers of BPC and with the full co-operation of all members to ensure that standards of disclosure are maintained and our rules enhanced wherever necessary to ensure full compliance by all members.

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