TNAG-2989-FCO40-3575-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-talks-betwee-1992 — Page 122

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-ensure disclosure of the criteria which determine the individual's

entitlements to benefits and services.

92. It makes sense to begin with those agencies and departments which have the most contact with the public and the greatest impact on their daily lives. We will publish the first performance pledges by the end of this year. They will set out targets:

-for waiting times for treatment at Hospital Authority specialist

clinics;

for waiting times for consultations at Department of Health general clinics;

-for responses by the police, fire and ambulance services to calls for

emergency assistance;

-for processing time at Immigration Department control points such

as the airport;

-for replies to taxpayers' enquiries at the Inland Revenue; and

for processing applications for driving and vehicle licences by the Transport Department.

There will always be the more complex application, the unusual request, which means delays in the speed of service. In these cases, the service in question will be required to keep its clients informed of the reasons for delays.

A Culture of Service

93. Eventually, every part of the public sector which provides its services directly to the community will commit itself publicly to performance pledges. But, in the meantime, the Civil Service Branch is starting work on the basic elements of the new client-based culture which should infuse every area of government activity:

-civil servants dealing with the public will identify themselves by

name;

correspondence from the public will receive at least an interim reply within 10 days;

-Government forms and documents will be reviewed to ensure that they are necessary, simple and totally user-friendly. We will abolish

as many as we can;

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