The Commission's aim is to improve the quality and effectiveness of local services by stimulating and informing public debate about the differences between councils in the standards of service that they provide and how these have changed over time.

In 1992, the Audit Commission was given a legal duty to draw up each year a list of indicators for measuring the performance of local government services. Councils are obliged to measure and report their own performance against these indicators every year. They must publish the results in a local paper within nine months of the end of the relevant financial year, and the Commission then publishes bilingually the Welsh authorities' results.

The National Assembly now sets performance indicators in Wales - with advice from the Audit Commission - as part of the best value regime, which requires authorities to aim to achieve continuous improvement. Following wide consultation, the Commission decided not to set statutory performance indicators for 2001/2002, in recognition of concerns about having two sets of national PIs. The Commission is instead developing an electronic 'library' of definitions of local performance indicators in collaboration with IDeA and Syniad. These can be used by authorities to help measure and compare their performance in services not covered by the national PIs. The Commission has also established a 'Centre for Performance Measurement' to provide advice on good practice in performance measurement.

Performance Indicator information in Wales can be downloaded from the Local Government Data Unit website here.