UK Parliament / Open data

Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Bill

My Lords, let me make very clear the difference between having targets, having business or management information, and doing something with

that information. Clearly, you collect this data not just to answer parliamentary questions but to run the business. It is used to look at where there are outliers and peculiarities, and what the norms are. When a particular jobcentre may be well outside the norm on either side, you might want to ask it why that was the case. Was it justifiable, and what were the dynamics of that? In some cases you are clearly looking at particular parts of the operation that are not operating in line with the norms. That is not having a target culture. A target culture—as the noble Lords opposite will know, because they were running one in many parts of the public services—is where you incentivise and drive performance based on particular targets. We do not do that. We do not have targets. We do, however, have management information and, as I say, we need to understand why outliers exist.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
744 c941 
Session
2012-13
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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