Short takes shot at Whitehall control freaks and targets

Clare Short attacked the "proliferation" of government targets yesterday, warning that they added to claims of Whitehall control freakery.

The Secretary of State for International Development said "announcement-itis" was no substitute for making improvements on the ground. "I think targets can be misused," she said. "They can be control-freaky. They can be imposed on people who don't believe in them. It could end up being a complete nonsense."

Ms Short said ministers talking of targets "annoys the public". But she praised the principle of targets, saying they had helped Britain transform the way states and international bodies such as the World Bank tackled global poverty.

She told the Public Administration Select Committee she was concerned at the huge array of government targets, saying they had to be produced in co-operation between ministers and civil servants.

She said: "The way in which Government has gone for endless announcements and control freakery and doesn't face up to how some things take a long time to change, has made people not believe the rhetoric, not notice some of the achievements. Targetry could play into that if it is sort of constant announcements, 'We have got a target for that', as if it is already achieved."

She admitted: "We are a very, very highly motivated and ambitious department. Even I said at the last set, 'Shall we set them lower for the Treasury than we really mean just to keep them easy'. That's a perverse incentive that could happen if it was punitive."

Last week, James Strachan, the new chairman of the Audit Commission, praised the principle of targets but warned that crude goals were a "surefire way" of failing to achieve improvements in public services.

Ms Short defended her comments over Christmas that the Government suffered from "crummy and lousy" public relations, insisting that failures of spin detracted from its achievements.

But she agreed ministers suffered from "announcement-itis" and warned that a belief that setting targets was a substitute for action simply contributed to cynicism in public life.

Ms Short said crude targets could divert ministers from work difficult to measure. "If they are slavishly followed we will set targets only for measurable things and you will only do what you need to get a tick in the box," she said.

Michael Howard, the shadow Chancellor, said Ms Short had "lifted the lid on the growing discontent in Whitehall over Labour's failure to meet its own targets".