Targets often cause departments to focus on certain objectives, meaning others are ignored.
Targeting can also lead to ingenious and sometimes undesirable ways of meeting them. Targets assume that the centre can drive change, but individuals and teams can often find better ways of working. The government would do better to focus on transparency rather than targets, allowing users to pick the best providers of services. About two-thirds of the government's new performance indicator targets are based on outcomes rather than outputs. For instance, whereas an output target might be the number of police officers, an outcome target is a reduction in crime.