The Government's drive for efficiency has led to pressure on the whole of the public sector to measure output and performance. This book contains papers by civil servants and academics concerned with the issues. The contributions range from accounts of new techniques under development to analyses of progress made over the past five years in the field of health, higher education and research, local authority spending and a central government department. The discussion is set against a background of efforts to introduce more market-based and competitive allocation procedures in a number of areas, and to hive off parts of the civil service into more independent agencies. Peter Hennessey sets the current trends against the history of government plans to increase public sector efficiency. The book gives an up to date account of the state of play of output and performance measurement and will be of use to practitioners in central and local government, as well as academics concerned with public administration and public spending.