Access is another important principle of the citizens charter .sx Services should be run to suit the convenience of customers , not of staff .sx Services should be easy to find and to use .sx That means flexible opening hours to suit local users , telephones that are answered promptly , inquiry points that are helpful , informative and efficient in directing the caller to the person best placed to help him or her , and signposts to help the citizen locate whatever he or she wants .sx Inevitably , there will be times when things do not go right .sx When that happens , it is not a question of simply saying that money should be poured into the organisation as a remedy .sx One of our primary responsibilities as a Government is to the taxpayer , and we will not neglect that responsibility .sx When things go wrong , the citizen wants to be told fully , honestly and , preferably , there and then why it has gone wrong .sx For example , most people will not mind waiting a few extra minutes in a hospital waiting room if they know that the doctor has been called away to deal with an emergency .sx They will not put up with simply being left without being told the reason for being apparently let down .sx When things go wrong , people want an apology properly expressed , and they should be entitled to one .sx There should be a well-publicised and readily available complaints procedure .sx Lessons should be learned from complaints , so that mistakes are not repeated .sx People want to have the sense , when things go wrong , and they complain legitimately , that the system about which they are complaining is taking some notice of what they are saying .sx No one wants to see money diverted from service improvement to the detriment of the existing service , but where compensation can be made to increase rather than detract from efficiency , compensation procedures should be set out .sx I make no apology for setting out in such detail the charter's principles .sx They are important , and together they form the charter standard .sx How are the public to know who has adopted those principles and is improving services as a result ?sx Organisations that can prove that they are living up to the charter standard and are providing high-quality services that put the customer first will become eligible for the Charter Mark award .sx This voluntary scheme will be an acknowledged and easily recognisable sign of quality .sx It will provide an incentive to staff and management alike to bring about a progressive improvement in the delivery and quality of their services and to provide value for money through progressive improvements in service .sx Every public sector organisation that serves the public directly will be able to apply for the Charter Mark .sx So , too , will privatised utilities , such as the water companies or similar regulator regimes .sx The award will be within every organisation's reach , but not necessarily within immediate grasp .sx It will not be a soft or easy option .sx I look forward to announcing the details of the scheme before long .sx The implementation of the charter is an ambitious task .sx It is a programme which has set a lead .sx No programme so ambitious or comprehensive has ever been attempted anywhere in the world .sx Great interest in the charter has been shown in Europe , north America , Australia , and elsewhere .sx We are determined to implement it successfully .sx I pay tribute to Sir James Blythe and his fellow members of the advisory panel for their energetic and imaginative work in driving the programme forward .sx The real results are the improvements that take place on the ground locally .sx It is in the local tax office , the local hospital and the local school that the citizen will look for improvements and judge whether the charter is a reality .sx Much has already happened .sx The next steps programme has played an important part .sx In the case of the Benefits Agency , for example , more telephone calls than previously have been handle in five languages with specialist help lines , and waiting times have been reduced by half .sx The Employment Service achieved more than 95 per cent .sx accuracy in its benefits payments in 1990-91 .sx It is integrating its local office network with benefit offices , to offer users a one-stop shop .sx For example , at the Driving Standards Agency , waiting times for driving tests have been reduced .sx Another example of what has started to happen and will happen under the citizens charter programme is that , in the national health service , there will be fixed-time appointments for patients from April next .sx No patient should have to wait more than 30 minutes .sx We want to say a final goodbye to the old arrangement whereby 50 patients were called for appointments at 9 o'clock in the morning but many of them were not seen until well into the afternoon .sx That is no way to treat people .sx The patients charter will put an end to it .sx There will also be guaranteed waiting times for NHS treatment .sx Each district health authority will set maximum waiting times for each specialty , and none of the maximum times can be more than two years .sx Once again , waiting times should come down and people should know they can expect , what standard the local provider of that service has undertaken to deliver .sx All parents will receive school reports on their child's progress at least once a year .sx In the utilities , to take two examples , East Midlands Electricity has introduced fixed-time appointments for customers , and SEEBoard has introduced a new , simple , flat-rate compensation system for its customers .sx We have also taken steps to introduce legislation , where needed , to take forward work on the charter .sx The Competition and Services ( Utilities ) Bill , published last week , will give customers a better deal by giving tougher powers to the regulators - allowing them , for example , to set guaranteed service standards for individual customers , such as fixed appointment times - no more waiting for the gas man .sx The regulators will also be able to ensure that compensation is paid where those service standards are not met , that each utility has satisfactory procedures for handling customer complaints and that those procedures are published .sx As the utilities operate in the private sector , they are already going fast down that track of improving customer services .sx We want that to continue .sx The Local Government Bill , published on 4 November , will require local authorities to publish information showing what standard of service they are providing and at what cost .sx The Audit Commission and its Scottish equivalent will have powers to report on the performance of local authorities both individually and collectively , to which all local authorities would have to respond publicly .sx The Education ( Schools ) Bill sets up a framework to implement the main proposals of the parents charter , published in September .sx It will ensure regular and independent inspection of schools , and that the inspection report is made available to parents .sx It will empower the Secretary of State to collect and publish information about schools .sx That will be published annually by region and will include public examination and national curriculum test results , truancy rates and the first destinations of school leavers .sx That is all vital information that parents are entitled to have .sx Under the legislation , in future they will have it .sx I shall shortly publish a White Paper entitled , 'Competing for Quality' which sets out the Government's commitment to improving public services by expanding choice and competition .sx That is a key element of the citizens charter programme .sx It sets out how , in setting targets and freeing managers to buy services in open competition , public services can respond better and more efficiently to the wishes of their users .sx Buying services in open competition is good news for the taxpayers , who will get better value for money , and for managers and their staff , who can work together to achieve the best deal for customers .sx Last , but by no means least , it is good news for local businesses , giving private firms new opportunities to market their services in free and open competition .sx Other legislation will be needed , too , to take forward the proposals outlined in the charter White Paper .sx When we are returned to government , we shall introduce legislation to give the citizen a right to challenge unlawful industrial action affecting public services , and legislation to privatise the railways and to deregulate London buses .sx We also plan to limit the Post Office monopoly , to establish a new regulator for postal services , and to give the Secretary of State powers to set standards and targets for the Post Office .sx We plan to extend delegation in the civil service and to deal with the problems of technical redundancy .sx Mr. Malcolm Bruce ( Gordon) :sx Am I to read into what the Minister says that the Government intend to put more and more services out to arm's-length agencies which are not effectively accountable to Ministers , and certainly not accountable to Members of the House ?sx Does he not think that the citizens of Britain wouldbe better served if Ministers were more prepared to answer the questions asked by the House , rather than avoiding them by putting everything out to agencies ?sx Mr. Maude :sx The hon .sx Gentleman betrays a woeful ignorance of how the process works .sx I am also interested to hear the devotion of the new-style modern Liberal Democrats to old-fashioned bureaucracy .sx I commend to the House the programme of putting all the executive operational parts of the public service of central Government out to executive agencies under professional chief executives who are directly accountable to Ministers who are themselves directly accountable to the House .sx That will provide even-better services to the public , because they are accountable and because they have the freedom to manage .sx I make no apology for that programme .sx I am sorry to hear once again that the Liberal Democrats seem to be devoted to the process of reaction and opposition to any progressive improvement or reform .sx Mr. Harry Barnes ( Derbyshire , North-East) :sx Do we not need a Members of Parliament charter , so that , when we send letters to benefit agencies , instead of their taking ages to answer , we will begin to get some response ?sx It is said that the citizens charter allows more information to be generally available to individuals , but less and less information is available to Members who ask questions in the House , as areas are hived off to agencies and privatised , so that the service providers are no longer democratically accountable .sx Democratic socialism adds parliamentary accountability and parliamentary avenues .sx Mr. Maude :sx Once again , I say that there will be no reduction in accountability .sx There is an improvement in transparency , and we are moving away from the old bureaucratic culture to which the Opposition , whether Labour or Liberal Democrat , seem devoted .sx We can achieve much greater accountability , efficiency and effectiveness and delivering real and good services to citizens by moving in the direction of open and accountable executive agencies than by saying that the man in Whitehall knows best , and that we shall have a nice pyramid of bureaucracy in which everyone is concerned about what happens inside the organisation , but fewer people are concerned with what happens when the service is delivered to the citizen .sx Mr James Arbuthnot ( Wanstead and Woodford) :sx One of the agencies that serves my constituency is the social security office at Wentworth house .sx I have to admit that , even before that office became an agency , it was extremely good , and answered my letters within seven days .sx Its benefit service was exceptional .sx Since becoming an agency it has got even better .sx Payments now go out within four days of a request being received .sx That means that the office deals with the paper work , the calculation , checking and the provision of a cheque within four days .sx That is staggering .sx The carping from Labour Members should be put down to sour grapes , because this is something that they did not think of for themselves .sx Mr. Maude :sx My hon .sx Friend's experience of the improved service provided by the new agencies reflects similar , widespread experience .sx I make no apology for saying that the Government propose to press ahead full steam with the process of transfering services - the operational parts of central Government - to executive agencies .sx