The Press Complaints Commission has carried out two surveys which examine the work and accessibility of the watchdog.

In a poll conducted by MORI, a representative sample of 2,058 adults were questioned to find out how aware the public is of the PCC and what they expect from it.

And in a separate customer survey conducted last year, the PCC also assessed what complainants’ thought about the service they had received.

Of those questioned in the MORI poll, 80 per cent said that they had heard of the PCC, but very few of them had been affected by media intrusion.

Only four per cent said they had ever had cause for complaint about a newspaper or magazine article relating to them personally.

The poll also asked what they expected of a media complaints organisation. Fifty-two per cent said a quick resolution, and forty per cent said it should be free – but when specifically asked about who should fund the PCC, a majority of 64 per cent said the press itself.

The PCC also questioned all those whose complaints it had investigated.

It found 94 per cent thought the PCC’s printed information “very clear” or “clear”; 85 per cent felt the Commission’s staff “very helpful” or “helpful”; and 61 per cent thought their complaint was dealt with “very thoroughly” or “thoroughly”.

The PCC said the results were especially interesting when it considered that just under 70 per cent of those who returned a survey form were individuals where it was decided that their complaints raised no breach of the Code, or that no further action was necessary after an offer of remedial action.

And the results of the survey among those whose complaints had been resolved were even higher – at 98 per cent, 99 per cent and 90 per cent respectively.