John Jackson (London, Mishcon de Reya): Target setting by departments of government and their functionaries is designed to improve the quality of public services and the efficiency with which they are delivered.
As the shocking case of the Stafford hospital, which seemed to forget that its main purpose was to care for the sick and injured, has shown, this managerial practice can produce strange results. It can be used also for strange purposes.
Yesterday morning a colleague and I had an unpleasant experience. We had tickets (and reserved seats) on the East Midlands train due to leave St Pancras at 9.25 for Leicester. The number of the departure platform was not announced until close to 9.20. As a large number of waiting passengers hurried to the barriers, two burly officials in dark suits appeared, stationed themselves either side of the narrow entry, instructed us brusquely to ‘form two lines with our tickets and passes ready' and sent to the rear of the lines those who said that ‘as usual' they intended to purchase their ticket on the train. This process took time and a considerable number, including some with tickets, missed their train when shortly before 9.25 the barriers were shut against them. We were the last to squeeze through and the train was moving before we found our seats. Bizarrely, within two minutes another inspector appeared and examined our tickets.
‘What on earth was all that about?' I asked my companion.
‘Two things' he replied. ‘Not everyone who boards the trains without tickets gets picked up. Those missed do not always volunteer to buy a ticket with resulting loss to the rail companies who are increasingly desperate to increase their revenues.'
‘And shutting the barriers?' I asked. ‘Oh, if trains do not leave bang on time that is recorded and is a ‘black mark' at franchise renewal time.'
‘Blimey', I thought. ‘That is a very expensive way of causing maximum anxiety and inconvenience to a mainly honest travelling public, some of whom might have needed badly to catch that train'. That set the framework for the rest of the day.
At the meeting we attended, we discovered that a company selling ‘convenience' goods to people with little financial means was expecting to be fined for having sold a sharp kitchen knife to a customer aged less than 18.
‘How did it happen?' I asked.
‘A new till assistant did not follow instructions and got caught out. She is being disciplined.'
‘Caught out how?'
‘Entrapment'.
Apparently local Trading Standards officials are adopting the practice of recruiting young people under 18 (looking older?), wiring them up for evidential purposes and sending them in to shops as purported customers. Knife crime is a very serious problem. But combating it by wiring up youngsters? Will they become willing spies on their neighbours if, later in life, they are recruited by their local authority's ‘stazi'?
And will it stop at knives? And are Trading Standards officers set conviction targets? A horrid question!
It is an offence to sell liqueur chocolates, a popular Christmas gift, to anyone under 16. Can we look forward to our under 16s being wired up and sent into shops at Christmas time? What are we doing to our young people? And as much to the point. What are we doing to ourselves?
