Properly measuring Britain's public services means taking into account what they actually deliver and not just how much money the government spends on them, an independent review of statistics said on Monday. It comes just months before an expected general election when Britain's ruling Labour government will come under even closer scrutiny over the billions of pounds it has poured into public services.

Commissioned more than a year ago by Len Cook, the National Statistician, or head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Atkinson Review sought to recommend ways to make statistics on government output better reflect what services do for the broad economy and society.

Government output represents some 20 pct of the overall UK economy. While Sir Tony Atkinson's concluding document offered no new economic figures, it said that there could be changes to data on government output and productivity should the Office for National Statistics (ONS) eventually put the 54 recommendations and nine principles for measurement into place.

"The method of measuring government output can make a considerable difference to the recorded growth rate of the economy," said Sir Tony Atkinson, Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Copyright Reuters, 2005