This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Measuring public sector productivity
28/06/2005
A strategy that will help deliver accurate measurement
of public sector productivity in Scotland was published
today.
The Scottish Executive set out its Scotland-focused
strategy for the
implementation
of the UK Atkinson Review, which was published in
January.
The strategy, which is expected to serve as a public
statement of its intentions in this important area of
statistics, sets out exactly how the principles and
recommendations of the Atkinson Review will be taken
forward by the Executive.
Drawing on the Atkinson Review, the aim of the strategy
is to develop enhanced measures of public sector activity
specifically for Scotland and to improve the measurement of
Gross Domestic Product.
Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform Tom
McCabe said:
"The Executive is committed to improving the delivery of
public services and ensuring we spend taxpayers' money
wisely. We are already making progress in measuring what we
and the wider public sector do and this process will
continue with our Efficient Government initiative.
"This strategy builds on the work done by the UK
Atkinson Review and will introduce enhanced measures of
public sector activity specifically for Scotland."
Reflecting increased governmental and public interest in
measures of public sector outputs and performance, Sir Tony
Atkinson was asked by the National Statistician (Permanent
Secretary of the Office for National Statistics) in
December 2003 to undertake an independent review of the
future development of measures of government output,
productivity and associated prices indices - recognising
important related factors, such as the quality of outputs -
for the UK national accounts.
Sir Tony published his interim findings in July 2004 and
his final report in January 2005. The Final Report of the
Atkinson Review makes 54 specific recommendations, which
cover:
- the economic principles of the
Review
- methodology with respect to
inputs and outputs
- the implementation process.
More than one-third of the total recommendations make
some reference to work that is expected to be advanced
jointly between the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
and the Devolved Administrations.