Engineers climb 'most trusted' professions list

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This year's Veracity Index, based on surveys by polling company Ipsos among more than a thousand Britons, placed engineers in second place in the most trusted top ten.

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Medics trusted and confidence in public servants dented

Nurses remained in first place with doctors in third, although both their approval rankings had declined from last year.But the biggest losers were politicians, with the public's trust in them to tell the truth falling to its joint lowest level in the 40-year history of the rankings, matching the low recorded after the expenses scandal of 2009.Just 12 per cent of respondents said they believed what politicians said, a seven-point fall from 2021, making them the least trusted profession in the country.Mike Clemence, a researcher at Ipsos Trends & Foresight, said: “This year we have seen public trust drop gently across a wide range of professions. The biggest drop is in trust in politicians, which has fallen to levels last seen during the expenses crisis."However, we have also seen small but noticeable falls for high-trust professions including doctors, nurses, teachers and curators, as well as trust in the average person in the street."This makes the professions where we have seen an increase in trust this year – TV newsreaders, trade union officials and engineers – all the more noteworthy."

Car mechanics and taxi drivers boost their reputation

Mr Clemence added that there had also been some new entrants in the list of trusted professions. "Three-quarters trust waiters and waitresses to tell the truth, making them among the ten most trusted professions in the country. We also see two-thirds trust taxi drivers and a little over half trust car mechanics to tell the truth."After the first three, the top 10 of the most trusted professions was made up of scientists, teachers, museum curators, judges, professors, care home workers, and serving staff at restaurants.The five least-trusted professions in the rankings were politicians, advertising executives, government ministers, estate agents and journalists, although the trust in journalists had increased to 29 per cent, its highest on record.

Trust in professions by gender

Ipsos added: "As with previous years, trust in professions varies little by gender. The largest gap between men and women is on trust in care workers, who are trusted by 82 per cent of men and 71 per cent of women."Wider differences in levels of trust can be found between supporters of the Conservative and Labour parties. As seen last year, the largest difference between the two is on trade union officials, who are trusted by 65 per cent of Labour supporters and 29 per cent of Conservative supporters."There are also large gaps in the levels of trust held for individuals in government, with government ministers trusted by 34 per cent of Conservatives and 12 per cent of Labour supporters, and politicians generally are trusted by 26 per cent and 11 per cent respectively."

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