Official Statistics

DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker: Technical overview, Summer 2026, UK

Published 27 October 2026

This note covers technical information about the Public Attitudes Tracker (PAT) survey completed in Summer 2026. More detailed technical information on the survey series, including details of the new data collection methodology adopted in Autumn 2021 and previous methodologies, is available in the annual Technical Report.

Alongside this Technical Overview, we have also provided:

• Individual topic reports covering results from the survey grouped by theme
• Tables showing the time series for questions asked on multiple occasions since Autumn 2021
• Tables containing crosstabulations for headline questions by gender, age, highest qualification, and geography
• The questionnaire that details both online and paper formats

Overview

This report presents a technical overview of the Summer 2026 survey wave conducted by DESNZ. The results from this wave are based on a representative sample of 3,242 adults aged 16 or over in the UK. Data collection ran from 7 July to 12 August 2026.

From Autumn 2021, the PAT survey moved to a ‘push-to-web’ survey method referred to as address-based online surveying. The Summer 2026 wave of the PAT is the 17th wave of the new time series following this change in methodology. Significant changes affecting both survey sample and mode mean that the results from this wave are not directly comparable with results collected via surveys conducted using the previous methodology.

Between Autumn 2021 and Summer 2023, surveys were conducted every quarter. From Winter 2023, the survey moved to a triannual design with waves conducted every spring, summer, and winter, as follows:

• Winter 2023 (7 November to 11 December 2023)
• Spring 2024 (18 March to 22 April 2024)
• Summer 2024 (11 July to 15 August 2024)
• Winter 2024 (7 November to 12 December 2024)
• Spring 2025 (17 March to 22 April 2025)
• Summer 2025 (8 July to 13 August 2025)
• Winter 2025 (4 November to 9 December 2025)
• Spring 2026 (16 March to 21 April 2026)

Summer 2026 survey

The Summer 2026 questionnaire covered the following topics:

• Net zero
• Climate change
• Renewable energy
• Great British Energy
• Clean Power 2030
• New electricity network infrastructure
• Energy security
• Greenhouse gas removals
• Heat pumps in the home
• Solar panels and batteries in the home
• Energy saving in the home
• Energy costs
• Smart appliances
• Demographic and classification questions

Changes to the survey in Summer 2026

A list of changes to the Summer 2026 questionnaire in comparison to the previous Summer 2025 questionnaire version is provided below. In addition to the listed changes, some questions may have been moved within the questionnaire to limit order effects when new questions are included, or questions are removed.

New survey questions:

• LCHEATKNOW9 (awareness of air-to-air heat pumps): a new question followed the existing question on awareness of air source and ground source heat pumps to assess awareness of air-to-air heat pumps. An explanation was provided of how these differ from other types of heat pump, through blowing warm air into the home using indoor fan units rather than using radiators and only providing heating, not hot water.
• SOLARBATTERY (whether would consider installing battery to store energy generated by solar panels): respondents who would consider installing, or already had, solar panels in their home were asked about battery installation.

Survey question removed:

• NZCONF (confidence that the UK is on track to meet its net zero target by 2050): this was removed from Summer 2026, since it may act as a proxy for other attitudinal questions.

Winter questions moved to Summer waves:

• ICFKNOW, ICFIMPORT (belief that UK is a global leader in tackling climate change and the importance of this): these questions were previously asked annually in Winter waves but are now asked in Summer.

Adapted questions:

• INFRASUPP, INFRAWHYSUPP, INFRAWHYNO (attitudes to construction of new electricity network infrastructure in local area and reasons for attitudes): The initial attitudinal question was changed from previously asking about levels of happiness (INFRAHAPP) to asking about extent of support. The follow-on questions focused, therefore, on reasons for support and lack of support, instead of reasons for being happy (INFRAWHYHAPP) and unhappy (INFRAWHYNO) with construction.
• ENERG3A-D (importance of different aspects of energy policy): The descriptions assigned to the end points of the 10-point scale of importance were changed: 0 from ‘least important’ to ‘not at all important’, and 10 from ‘most important’ to ‘extremely important’. In addition, an example (‘e.g. renewable energy’) was added at the end of the third policy area: Energy generated from cleaner, low-carbon sources.

Amended question wording:

• SOLARFARM (attitudes towards the construction of solar farm in the local area): this question was amended to refer to ‘solar farms’ rather than ‘solar panel farms’, as in previous waves.

Please refer to the Summer 2026 questionnaire for full question wording.

Survey definitions

In the report, where we refer to ‘Awareness’ this encompasses all respondents who said they had heard of a particular concept or technology, including those who said they knew ‘hardly anything but I’ve heard of this’, ‘a little’, ‘a fair amount’, or ‘a lot’. ‘Knowledge’ is confined to those who said that they knew ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a lot’.

Address-based online surveying

Address-based online surveying (ABOS) is a type of ‘push-to-web’ survey method.                                                   

The basic ABOS design uses a stratified random sample of addresses drawn from the Royal Mail’s postcode address file. An invitation letter is sent to each selected address, containing username(s) and password(s) plus the URL of the survey website. Sampled individuals can log on using this information and complete the survey online. Once the questionnaire is complete, the specific username and password cannot be used again, ensuring data confidentiality from others with access to this information.

One reminder letter is sent to each sampled address where no response has been achieved by a designated cut-off date.

Paper questionnaires ensure coverage of the offline population and are especially effective with sub-populations that respond to online surveys at lower-than-average levels. However, paper questionnaires have measurement limitations that constrain the design of the online questionnaire and add considerably to overall cost. For the DESNZ PAT, paper questionnaires are used in a limited and targeted way, to optimise rather than maximise response.

To ensure the survey was accessible to the offline population, some mailings included paper questionnaire alternatives based on addresses where external data indicated that all residents were aged 65 or over. Paper questionnaires were also available on request.

Summer 2026 sample design

The sampling was designed to yield a respondent sample that was representative with respect to geography, neighbourhood deprivation level, and age group.

Table 1 shows the (initially issued) sample structure with respect to the major strata. Higher sampling fractions were applied to the three least populous International Territorial Level 1 regions (North East England, Northern Ireland, and Wales) so that the expected number of completed questionnaires was at least 200 in each one.^{[footnote 1]}

Table 1: Addresses issued by area deprivation and household age structure: Summer 2026

Expected household age structure	Most deprived	2nd	3rd	4th	Least deprived
All aged 35 or under	1,505	1,244	924	598	425
All aged 36 to 64	5,229	3,505	2,788	2,285	1,684
All aged 65 or over	481	521	668	562	541

Summer 2026 fieldwork

The data collection took place from 7 July to 12 August 2026.

All resident adults aged 16 and over at each sampled address were invited to complete the survey, although for practical reasons the number of logins was limited to up to four adults per household, with more available on request. The number of logins was based on the estimated number of adults living in the household, based on external data. In Summer 2026, the mean number of logins per address was 2.8.

• 22,960 invites were sent out initially and 19,832 reminders were sent in the second week of fieldwork.
• 237 cases were identified as invalid based on quality assurance checks and were removed from the data set, representing 7% of initially achieved cases.
• The achieved sample size (after data cleaning) was 3,242 individuals, of whom 2,719 (84%) completed the survey online and 523 (16%) on paper.
• The household response rate was 11.3%, and the estimated individual response rate was 8.1%.
• The average (median) time to complete the survey online was 16 minutes and 1 second.

Summer 2026 weighting

Weighting was used to compensate for differences in both sampling probability and response probability. The DESNZ PAT weighting matrix includes nine variables (sex, age group, highest educational qualification, working status, ethnic group, internet use, region, housing tenure, and household size). For more detailed information please see the latest published Technical Report. Several of these are intersected with age group to ensure a consistent weighted sample distribution per age group per wave, although most are marginal controls on the sample distribution.

A range of measures are also used during fieldwork to mitigate and monitor the risk of non-response bias. These include targeted data collection approaches (for example, the use of paper questionnaires for groups less likely to respond online), ongoing monitoring of response patterns over the fieldwork period, and comparison of the achieved sample profile against known population benchmarks. While these checks provide an indication of the extent to which the achieved sample reflects the target population, the risk of non-response bias cannot be fully assessed or eliminated, as information on non-respondents is limited.

The statistical efficiency of the individual-level weights was 64%, corresponding to a design effect of around 1.57. This estimate is based on the variability of the survey weights using a standard Kish approximation. The effective sample size is approximately 2,067; this represents the size of a simple random sample that would yield equivalent precision.

As a guide, for estimates around 50%, the maximum 95% confidence interval at the overall level is estimated to be approximately ±2.2 percentage points. Confidence intervals for subgroup estimates will be wider, depending on their effective base sizes. Table 2 shows the maximum confidence intervals for direct estimates for the Summer 2026 sample, assuming a design effect of 1.57.

Table 2: Maximum confidence intervals^{[footnote 2]} for % estimates

	n = 3,242, design effect = 1.57
100% (top level)	±2.2% pts
50% (for example, by sex)	±3.0% pts
20% (for example, by age group)	±4.8% pts
10% (for example, by sex/age group)	±6.8% pts
5% (rare subpopulations)	±9.6% pts

Further information

Future updates to these statistics

The next release will cover winter 2026 and is scheduled to be published on 10 March 2027. Note that not all tracker questions are included in each wave.

Revisions policy

The department’s statistical revisions policy sets out the revisions policy for these statistics, which has been developed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

Related statistics

There are various other surveys which seek the general public’s opinion on topics related to those covered by the DESNZ Public Attitudes Tracker. These include:

Transport and Transport Technology: Public Attitudes Tracker
The Department for Transport also publishes an attitudes tracker to monitor trends in UK public attitudes to and awareness of transport technologies.

The English Housing Survey (EHS)The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN)The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes a monthly survey covering topics relating to people’s experience of daily life and events, including questions on climate change.

Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS)
ONS publishes a fortnightly survey about issues impacting UK businesses and the economy. BICS covers a range of topics including a module on climate change.

Energy statistics that provide context for the attitude data collected by the PAT are available on the Statistics at DESNZ website.

Uses of these statistics

These statistics were commissioned by DESNZ, and are also used by other government departments, academics, ministers, and the general public. Some examples of the uses of previous waves of the PAT include:

• Understanding public awareness of key DESNZ policies such as the concept of net zero.
• Monitoring public attitudes to climate change and government policies associated with this and understanding how concern varies between demographic groups.
• Measuring public perceptions of different clean energy sources which relate to the government’s clean energy superpower mission.

User engagement

Users are encouraged to provide comments and feedback on how these statistics are used and how well they meet user needs. Comments on any issues relating to this statistical release are welcomed and should be sent to: pat@energysecurity.gov.uk.

The department’s statement on statistical public engagement and data standards sets out the department’s commitments on public engagement and data standards as outlined by the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Pre-release access to statistics

Some ministers and officials receive access to these statistics up to 24 hours before release. Details of the arrangements for doing this and a list of the ministers and officials that receive pre-release access to these statistics can be found in the department’s statement of compliance with the Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.

Contact

Email: pat@energysecurity.gov.uk

Media enquiries: 020 7215 1000; newsdesk@energysecurity.gov.uk

1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/whatwedo/programmesandprojects/europeancitystatistics ↩

2. These are indicative maximum confidence intervals based on weights alone. ↩