Failing targets?

It's interesting to see how public bodies such as the police, education and health meet targets, They could (and occasionally do) argue that such targets are unrealistic, but mostly they come up with ways to circumvent them... which is also known as lying.
Express.

HOSPITAL patients are waiting three weeks longer than records show, a report has revealed.
NHS targets require that 90 per cent of patients who need to be admitted to hospital start treatment within 18 weeks of referral by their GP.
This rises to 95 cent for those who can be treated as outpatients.
But research by the National Audit Office found NHS trusts in England were “mis-recording” data.

That's pretty much what some police forces were doing with crime data and similar to what educationists in government and schools did with exam results, they went ever higher whilst churning out 1 in 5 kids who did not understand reading or writing in any meaningful way.
Still, it does go to show the mindset of those who work in a target driven environment, if you can't meet the target, invent or misrepresent the results to make it appear as if you did. That's essentially what the previous Labour administration did for society (amongst other things) they wanted good results and to hell with what was actually going on, a mantle taken and ran with by the current administration, or rather those working for them.
For too long now the political process has worked on the 'make it so' principle of judging results by the paperwork, rather than what's actually going on. That's why we had ever higher exam pass rates, low crime numbers and now low waiting times. It gave ministers something to crow about and the likes of the BBC would never call them on it nor come to that the rest of the MSM unless it was a scandal they couldn't cover up.
They say we get the government we deserve, if that's the case what a seriously moronic nation we must be.