In the Putting the frontline first: Smarter Government white paper published on 7 December, the Government announced it would “produce a regularly updated Civic Health Index from early 2010, to enable citizens and leaders to assess how well civic society is faring and how it can be enabled to thrive”.

In a statement, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said that the index would track the civic health of the nation, by bringing together information at the national, regional and local levels in a single report. It would include information on levels of citizen trust in public institutions and each other; levels of civic engagement and volunteering; as well as perceptions of influence, belonging and cohesion. The information will come from the DCLG’s Citizenship Survey, the Audit of Political Engagement, the National Survey of Third Sector Organisations; the Place Survey and other sources.