New performance management

This trend is sometimes characterised as the rise of ‘New Performance Management’ – which came to prominence in the New Labour years of 1997-2010 and has also been associated with the marketization of public services, the introduction of performance contracts and other incentives for public servants and other private sector techniques. In 1998, for example, 300 headline performance targets applying to all government departments were introduced each with a corresponding larger set of performance indicators.