Tories say Labour missing targets

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The Conservatives have accused the government of failing to fulfil promises, as they say Labour will miss 136 of their own targets.

The Tories said their check on department reports - called "Ofspin" - showed the government was on course to miss them, or had already missed them.

In education, it failed to hit GCSE targets and reduce the number of children in non-working households.

A government spokesman said the majority of targets were met.

The Tories said that the Treasury and HM Revenue and Customs had 16 missed or slipping targets.

Other areas that were slipping were cutting health inequalities, improving the reliability of journeys on the road network and reducing the use of class A drugs by under-25s, they claimed.

'Report abandoned'

Shadow cabinet minister Chris Grayling said: "When Labour came to office, they published a short-lived annual report and asked the public to hold them to account if they didn't keep their promises."

"Ten years on, and six years after they quietly abandoned their report, our own version shows that, despite the Government's original good intentions, there has been a systematic failure to deliver on those promises.

He said billions of pounds paid in tax were not used to deliver improvements and pointed the finger at Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown.

'Value for money'

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The Government necessarily sets ambitious targets because we take value for money seriously.

"And in some cases, such as hospital waiting lists, targets literally help save lives.

"The majority of targets are met and good progress still takes place against other targets."