Raising the Expectation Interest: New Labour and the Citizen's Charter

Abstract

The Citizen's Charter is essentially a charter for consumers of public services rather than a blueprint for enhancing the constitutional and political rights of the citizen. In the private sector, consumers of goods and services are protected by legislation governing the sales of goods which bestows entitlements upon them, and reinforces their expectation interest. The relationship between purchaser and provider is contractual so that if goods are faulty or the service does not match its description or the expectation of the consumer, there is an entitlement to seek redress in the form of exchange of goods, refund or damages. Whilst most public services cannot be so precise in content and objectives as private goods and services, the Citizen's and service charters nevertheless established an expectation on the part of the consumer that quality, choice, standards and value would be provided and that there would be redress in the form of compensation or, at the very least, an explanation and apology if the service did not meet expectations. Therefore it could be argued that an expectation interest was implicit in the use of a service reflecting the customer's ability to cite the objectives of the relevant charter in a dispute about a service received. This article explores the extent to which there is a legitimate expectation interest for the user of public services and examines how far New Labour's plans for strengthening the Charter enhance that expectation interest by focusing on entitlements of citizenship, as well as consumerism.