Citizen's Charter

The Citizen's Charter was a British political initiative launched by the then Prime Minister, John Major, on 22 July 1991, less than a year into his premiership.

Aims

It aimed to improve public services in the UK by:

• Making administration accountable and citizen friendly.
• Ensuring transparency and the right to information.
• Taking measures to cleanse and motivate civil service.
• Adopting a stakeholder approach.
• Saving time of both executant and the clientele

All services would have to publish clear targets for levels of service. Dozens did so, from hospitals to prison services, local government offices to fire services.

One part of the initiative was the granting of "Charter Marks" to those public bodies meeting defined standards.

Reception

The initiative was widely criticized for claiming to improve public services while reducing money available for them, and for introducing private methods of management in the public sector. It was also claimed that the result was a "box-ticking mentality" concentraing on the measurable, rather than on the individual users of services.

Sources

• BBC "On This Day"
• Academic paper on the citizen's charter