for that matter, our ambitions are subject to unexpected reversals in our economic and political fortunes. But, let me give Members an unequivocal assurance: low and predictable taxes have been the bedrock of our economic policy. And so they will remain.
SERVING THE COMMUNITY
89. Good government is about much more than simply finding the wherewithal to upgrade our programmes, to improve our social services or enhance our infrastructure. An increasingly prosperous and sophisticated community quite rightly demands greater openness and accountability from the public sector which it pays for-and an official attitude of mind which regards the public as clients not supplicants.
90. Our Civil Service is talented and committed. In the last 30 years, they have done a great deal to provide the community with good public services. But good can always be made better. And I now want to ask the men and women who have responded so well to the community's needs in the past to respond to the community's aspirations for the future. We have now to go one step further, and seek to engender in our public services a culture that goes beyond the provision of the bare minimum; a culture that recognises the public as the paying customer and treats him or her accordingly. We have to set out precisely what standards our customers should expect from the public services; how to judge whether those standards are being met; and what to do when they
are not.
Performance Pledges
91. To this end, all Government Departments providing services directly to the public will adopt performance pledges which will:
set out in plain terms the standards of service which the public has a right to expect;
-include provision for effective monitoring of actual performance
against the standards pledged;
-establish a right of appeal for dissatisfied clients;
-guarantee a right to a full and prompt explanation when these
standards are not achieved; and
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