Morris and Boateng differ on worth of targets

27 Mar 03
Government ministers should not commit themselves to meeting the targets set out in their departments' public service agreements (PSAs) because it is counterproductive, Estelle Morris has warned. The former education secretary told the Commons' publi.

28 March 2003

Government ministers should not commit themselves to meeting the targets set out in their departments' public service agreements (PSAs) because it is counterproductive, Estelle Morris has warned.

The former education secretary told the Commons' public administration select committee on March 24 that if ministers' careers were staked on meeting these goals, they would be reluctant to commit themselves to meaningful measures of performance.

Morris resigned last year amid fierce criticism after her department missed key literacy and numeracy targets.

She told MPs: 'If you know that you have got to promise as a minister that you will meet those targets and you know the consequences of not meeting those targets is derision, failure or having to resign, politicians, being human beings, will set low targets.'

But Chief Secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng, appearing at the same evidence session, mounted a strong defence of PSAs.

'I can't envisage a PSA system of targets worthy of the sort of ambition that we have for public services that doesn't have some targets that aren't going to be met. Because the whole point of targets is to challenge and stretch and motivate,' he said.

Boateng insisted that there was now widespread acceptance of targets as part of a performance management system, although he conceded some early PSAs had been 'poorly designed'.

'We have moved on from the rather sterile debate about whether we need targets. We have learned some valuable lessons since PSAs were introduced in 1998.'

The chief secretary rejected committee chair Tony Wright's suggestion that an independent body should audit the data published by Whitehall departments showing their performance against PSAs.

In April, the National Audit Office will begin scrutinising the systems used to collate performance data, but not the statistics themselves.

Boateng told MPs that Parliamentary scrutiny through departmental select committees would be sufficient to ensure public trust.

This would be reinforced by the publication of the information on each department's website from next month.

He added: 'It is a counsel of despair to believe that we can never be trusted without some external body,' he said. 'It will be open to everyone, including Parliament, to determine the truth of the situation.'


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