Testing times: How politicians stand or fall by targets they set

Setting targets is a risky business for any government. They are simple measures of performance which can be easily seized on by public, media and opponents if they are missed or dropped.

Take the UK Government's targets for the number of tests it said it would carry out. Health Secretary Matt Hancock committed to a figure of 100,000 by the end of April.

Well that was yesterday (Thursday) and today he has to say whether or not he has hit the target. There will be a lot of scrutiny on the figure announced.

But even if it isn't 100,000 it is likely to be close and Number 10 says that setting the target "has been extremely effective in driving up capacity in the system." In other words, it focusses minds within governments and the agencies to pull out all the stops to try to reach the sometimes arbitrary figures set by ministers.

The Welsh Government has been heavily criticised for abandoning its original target of carrying out 5,000 tests a day although it should be closer to 9,000 a day by now.

The First Minister's comments today about them being a distraction will only fire up further criticism. So too will the admission by the Chief Scientific Adviser for Health, Dr Rob Orford, that I reported yesterday that there continue to be targets set internally.

In one way he's right. Targets can prove a distraction from the job in hand.

Also speaking yesterday the Chief Medical Officer Dr Frank Atherton said, "I have consistently advised ministers and media that it's not about the number of tests, it's what we do with the testing."

And Dr Orford said those initial targets were set when it appeared there would be many more cases and many more seriously ill people - so the fact that they are not needed is down to the success in not just flattening the curve, but squashing it.

But setting targets is a political decision and politicians that set them should expect to be held to them, even if - or perhaps even more so - when they are dropped.

At the time the testing targets were dropped, Plaid Cymru highlighted other instances when the Welsh Government had missed or dropped targets for climate change, eliminating hepatitis C, PISA exam standards, ambulance response times, fuel poverty and most notably on ending child poverty in Wales.

That list bolsters the arguments of those who think goals like those are only ever set in order to win quick headlines.

I have no doubt that medical and scientific officials are right about the distraction and disruption they cause.

But targets are political decisions and politicians should expect them to be judged politically. That's the point of them.