Citizen's Charter

Series of proposals aimed at improving public services in the UK, unveiled by Conservative prime minister John Major in 1991. Major's ‘programme for a decade’ covered the activities of a range of public-sector bodies, including the police, the health service, schools, local authorities, and public and private utility companies. It promised better quality for consumers through the publication of service standards, the right of redress, performance monitoring, penalties for public services, tighter regulation of privatized utilities, and the increased pressures resulting from competition and privatization. Published charters set out the standards of service that consumers could expect and, in some cases, compensation could be claimed if performance was deficient. ‘Charter marks’ were awarded to the most successful providers of services. The guiding principle of the charter notion, borrowed from the private sector, is that ‘the customer is king.’

The Labour government of Tony Blair sought to refocus the charter programme through its Service First agenda for public service delivery introduced from 1998.