Citizens' Charter


Citizens' Charter

an initiative launched by the UK government in 1991 to promote high-quality service delivery in the public services. The Charter sets out the government's view on what citizens should expect to get from public services. Public sector organizations are now encouraged to set public targets for service delivery e.g. that 90% of trains should arrive on time, and to communicate to the public the extent to which these targets are achieved. Those organizations judged by a government committee to have set and achieved targets which bring about significant improvements to services may be awarded a Chartermark. The philosophy behind the Charter is that public services do not experience the market pressures faced by commercial organizations and hence some mechanism like the Citizens' Charter is necessary to ensure responsiveness to consumers. See NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT.