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 The Crown Representative has undertaken an awareness campaign to encourage use of Contracts Finder and Mystery Shopper services to promote early engagement and co-design and to hold authorities to account for poor practice.

The Crown Representative for voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) continues to actively promote with stakeholders the use of both Contracts Finder and the Public Procurement Review Service (formerly known as the Mystery Shopper service).

This is part of wider work by The Crown Representative to support VCSEs by promoting them in both commissioner and supplier communities, seeking more diversification in public service markets, and encouraging more effective use of the Social Value Act.