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Summary

Performance indicators have become ubiquitous in the public sector. In this paper, recent developments are assessed in relation to work in the private sector, where public reporting of activity has a much longer history. It is shown that lines of accountability are far more complex in the public sector. A history of initiatives to 1989 in the UK is followed by a brief survey of the analytic techniques available to interpret performance indicators. The paper ends with an attempt to trace the purposes underlying the various initiatives described and warns of the possible inefficiencies that they might induce.

accountability, efficiency, performance indicators, public sector

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© 1990 Royal Statistical Society
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