Letters of Services from the AGE

The Charters of Services of the AGE are written documents through which the organs, agencies and entities of the General Administration of the State, inform citizens and users about the services they have entrusted and the commitments of quality in their provision, as well as the rights of citizens and users in relation to these services.

Regulation: Article 8 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

They are regulated in the Chapter III of Royal Decree 951/2005,of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

The organs, agencies and entities of the General Administration of the State may draw up letters relating to all the services they manage and letters intended for a specific service.

Letters may also be drawn up for the purpose of a service in the provision of which various organs or bodies, subordinate to the General Administration of the State or to this and other public administrations, participate. These letters will be processed according to the procedure determined by the Ministry of Territorial Policy.

Regulation: Art. 8 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

The letters of services will express their content in a clear, simple and comprehensible way for citizens. Its structure and content is regulated in the Article 9 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

The letters will be updated periodically depending on the circumstances and, in any case, at least every three years.

Regulation: Article 10 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

The letters of services and their subsequent updates will be approved through resolution of the Under-Secretary of the department to which the organ belongs or to which the proposing body is linked or attached, after a favourable mandatory report from the Ministry of Territorial Policy (General Directorate of Public Governance), and the Ministry of Finance and Public Service.

The resolution will be published in the “Official State Gazette”, which will make it available to the public.

Each organ or body will carry out the informative actions of its letter that it deems most effective, always ensuring that they can be known by users in all its units with attention to the public, in the service of attention and information to the citizen of the corresponding ministry and through the Internet.

The letters of services must also be available in the information and citizen services of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and of the Delegations, Government Subdelegations and Island Directorates, as well as in the Electronic General Access Point of the AGE.

Regulation: Art. 11 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

The bodies and agencies will continuously monitor the degree of compliance with the commitments declared in their letter of services, through the indicators established for this purpose, the analysis of claims for non-compliance and the evaluations of user satisfaction.

The organs and bodies shall submit in the first quarter of each year a report on the degree of fulfilment of the commitments in the previous year, in which they shall explain the deviations and corrective measures adopted, as well as the corrective measures applied, where appropriate. The General Inspection of Services of the department may verify the degree of compliance with the quality commitments declared in the letters by the procedures it deems appropriate.

This information on service letters will be incorporated into the joint report on quality programmes to be submitted by the Subsecretariats to the Ministry of Territorial Policy.

The Ministry of Territorial Policy will determine the procedure by which public organizations may voluntarily request the certification of their service letters, in view of the rigour in their elaboration, the quality of the commitments undertaken and their degree of compliance.

Regulation: Article 12 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General Administration of the State.

Departments and bodies that have operational electronic services will publish, in addition to those mentioned above, letters of this type of service, in which citizens will be informed about the services they can access electronically and in which technical specifications of use and quality commitments in their provision will be indicated.

Electronic service letters will be available on the Internet and in printed form.

Regulation: Article 13 of Royal Decree 951/2005, of 29 July, establishing the general framework for quality improvement in the General State Administration

La Guide It provides practical guidance for developing and certifying a Charter of Services for any public organization.

The Certification of Charters of Services entails a procedure of evaluation of the Charters of Services, through which the General Directorate of Public Governance (Ministry of Territorial Policy) guarantees that these Charters meet the requirements established in the certification protocol, and for which it issues a document that ensures this.

Access to the regulation of the Certifications, Application and Models