Delivery Watch Special

Education

Class strife and varsity blues

The pledges

The Labour Party's 2001 manifesto promised to raise funding from 5 per cent of GDP to 5.3 per cent by 2004, to recruit an extra 10,000 teachers, free nursery places for every three-year-old long-term, an 85 per cent success rate for 11-year-olds in maths and English tests, faith schools where parents requested them, and no top-up fees for university students.

The reality

Funding has increased as promised and will rise to 5.6 per cent of GDP in 2005/6; of 10,000 extra teachers hired, 40 per cent are unqualified; even original targets of an 80 per cent success rate for basic tests for 11-year-olds have not yet been met but failure rates have gone down from 40 per cent in 1997 to 25 per cent today. Plans for more faith schools have proved divisive: critics claim there is a shift towards division and élitism which is in danger of undermining the comprehensive system. University students are still awaiting the outcome of the review into funding, and top-up fees have not been ruled out.

The verdict

Extra funding is failing to make decisive improvements as quickly as people hoped. Pay and prestige in the teaching profession are still too low to attract the brightest young people. Diversification and increased specialism in education may be promoting "excellence" at the expense of across-the-board results. University funding is still a shambles and the source of on-going internal squabbling between the Treasury and the Department for Education and Skills.

Rating: 3

A system that's ground to a halt

The pledges

There was a promise to put ?180bn into funding the 10-year plan on transport to "get Britain moving again". Some ?60bn will go towards upgrading motorways and building 100 bypasses and another ?60bn into rail services to replace rolling stock, expand passenger capacity by 50 per cent, provide more trains for London, and to create 25 rail and tram schemes. The key pledge was to cut car usage.

The reality

Improvements to the railways were already behind schedule before both the resignation of the former Secretary of State for Transport, Stephen Byers, and the winding-up of Railtrack, threw the system into further chaos. The Hatfield and Potters Bar accidents revealed serious safety problems and difficulties with subcontractors' quality of work. The programme to replace elderly rolling stock is behind schedule and 45-year-old trains will continue to run on several routes. Richard Bowker, the head of the Strategic Rail Authority, is cutting new schemes rather than expanding the network. The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, was forced to admit his plans to cut car use had failed. The Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, is reviewing plans to ease congestion.

The verdict

Despite the replacement of Railtrack with Network Rail, transport continues to be Labour's weakest link. The upgrade of the West Coast Main Line has been a fiasco, running late and over-budget. The Crossrail link across London may now never be built. The railways and Tube are plagued by strikes. And the congestion charge looks set to be a disaster in the hands of Ken Livingstone, the London mayor.

Rating: nil

Intensive care for ailing NHS

The pledges

The NHS overtook education in 2001 as the Government's priority. Promises ranged from a pledge to fund the service properly to plans for 20,000 more nurses by 2005, waiting times targets for cancer and cardiac care, 10,000 more doctors by 2005, and decentralisation to allow 75 per cent of health funding to be controlled by local primary care trusts.

The reality

The funding package announced by the Chancellor in the last Budget couldn't be argued with: NHS spending, he said, would go up from the equivalent of ?2,370 a year per household to ?4,060 a year in 2007/8. But getting money to where it is needed has been the problem. The Royal College of Nursing says that although many more nurses – 38,000 more than in 1997 – are working in the NHS, keeping staff is still a major problem. The Department of Health is reluctant, against a background of criticism of short-staffing, to confirm how many junior doctors, cancer specialists and cardiologists have been taken on since 2001. Giving more control to primary care trusts and giving the private sector a bigger role in the health service has been politically divisive, prompting a row with trade unions.

The verdict

The policy of money pegged to reform is as yet unproven. The NHS "supertanker" will still take its time to turn round and as it does the inevitable mistakes, problems and horror stories will continue to haunt it. But, assisted by Gordon Brown's billions, Alan Milburn, Secretary of State for Health, has the best chance yet to make the NHS really work.

Rating: 3.5

More police on meaner streets

The pledges

An extra 6,000 police recruits; tougher sentences and drug treatment for persistent offenders; a bill of rights for victims of crime; a reduction in crime; steps to tackle local disorder and anti-social behaviour.

The reality

Police numbers have gone up by 3 per cent in the past year, taking the number of officers to 129,603 – the highest number ever. The Government wants police out on the beat rather than dealing with paperwork. Very few minimum sentences have gone up, but there are tougher sentences for drug dealers. Judges continue to be criticised for a failure to impose maximum sentences. There is as yet no bill of rights for victims, though it is rumoured to be a likely inclusion in this autumn's Queen's Speech. Few anti-social behaviour orders or curfew orders have been handed down, but offenders as young as 12 can now be held in custody to prevent them from commiting further offences on bail. Truancy has not fallen significantly.

The verdict

Overall levels of crime are down by 22 per cent since 1997 but the numbers of violent crimes, street robberies and drug-related crimes have continued to rise. Tony Blair has been criticised for knee-jerk policy proposals to deal with street crime, but the ridiculed scheme to march yobs to ATMs to pay on-the-spot fines is being piloted in an amended form, with 28 days to pay a fixed penalty fine.

Rating 2

Prudence springs the poverty trap

The pledges

Faster productivity growth in Britain than our main competitors; 2.5 per cent inflation; interest rates kept as low as possible; minimum wage up to ?4.20 an hour; full employment; a further one million children out of poverty; a minimum income of ?100 for pensioners by 2003.

The reality

Inflation has, despite a few blips, been kept at or below the 2.5 per cent target since January 2001 and is now at around 1.9 per cent. Interest rates are low – at around 4 per cent, the lowest level since 1964 – and stable. The minimum wage, which has benefited 1.5 million workers, has risen as promised. Now the Government is under pressure to raise it again to at least ?5. Unemployment hit 943,300 earlier this year, its lowest level since 1975. Despite worrying job losses in the manufacturing sector, 28.5 million people were in work and jobless rates stayed static at 3.1 per cent. The poverty target is being approached, but the figures are based on a definition of poverty measured as 60 per cent of average income in 1997 rather than in 2002. Although the pensions pledge has been met, Help the Aged estimates that a quarter of those eligible do not take up the means-tested extras needed to reach ?100.

The verdict

Chancellor Gordon Brown's dogged commitment to economic stability continues to pay dividends. There are still difficulties in some sectors but the overall picture, notwithstanding the global downturn, is relatively rosy.

Rating: 4

Undefeated away, but a loser on home ground

The pledges

Unlike Labour's green 1997 manifesto which promised to put the environment "at the heart of government", the 2001 manifesto contained precious little about the issue. It did make a broad commitment to the countryside, but specifics were absent. The 1997 pledge to ban hunting with dogs was omitted completely. But an anti-green plan to gag dissent in planning disputes was included in the business manifesto.

The reality

Green campaigners were delighted when the Government broke its promise to stop intervention in planning disputes, a policy overturned when John Prescott took over the brief from Lord Falconer. Targets to build 60 per cent of housing on brownfield sites were met. There have been successes on the international stage, but none so notable as that when Mr Prescott persuaded world leaders to agree plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 5 per cent by 2008 – and he did that in 1997.

The verdict

Internationally, Britain has looked like a leader on environmental affairs, but at home its commitment to the environment has dwindled. Dissatisfaction with its policy on countryside issues has grown, culminating in last week's march through London. And those wanting hunting banned are disappointed with the lack of progress. Labour is in danger of pleasing none of the people, none of the time.

Rating: 2