Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to page 112 of the Civil Society Strategy published in August 2018, whether his Department has provided training for central government commercial buyers in how to take account of social value in commissioning and procurement.

DCMS is working closely with the Cabinet Office to implement a package of measures for the future of social value and procurement, including training for government commercial staff. We have consulted with stakeholders to inform this training and will undertake further engagement in February. We anticipate the training programme to roll out later this year.

We have already published an introductory guide to social value that we continue to actively promote across government and to stakeholders. The Commissioning Academy also continues to bring together public sector decision makers to learn about commissioning and public service transformation, including social value in commissioning and procurement.