Politics Explained: Setting targets can sometimes produce results

Matt Hancock was mocked for aiming to test 100,000 people a day, but his target has produced a huge increase in capacity

The health secretary’s target has focused the government’s efforts (PA)

Once upon a time government targets for the health service were bad and the Conservatives criticised them. Setting a maximum four-hour wait in accident and emergency departments, for example, “distorted clinical priorities”.

That was when the Conservatives were in opposition, and a Labour government was trying to ensure that the public money it spent on the NHS wasn’t frittered away.

Now the tables are turned. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has set a target of having 100,000 tests for coronavirus carried out daily by Thursday, the end of the month.