18 October 2002
It will focus particularly on the public service agreements that regulate spending departments and the relationship with the Treasury, long a subject of debate.
'They are the central instrument within government for performance assessment,' said PASC chair Tony Wright.
'But we hear frequent claims about the alleged centralisation of public services, about "top-down" demands that are said to demoralise those in the front line, and about the supposed proliferation of meaningless targets and invidious league tables.
'The committee would like to know why some targets seem to fail or produce perverse results.'
Hearings are due to start on October 31. Among witnesses will be Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers; Ian Bogle, chair of the British Medical Association; Local Government Association chair Sir Jeremy Beecham and Cabinet Office minister Douglas Alexander.
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