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 113 of the Government's Civil Society Strategy, published in August 2018, what steps his Department has taken review the Innovation Partnership model; and what steps his Department is taking to encourage contracting authorities to work directly with partners to research and develop an innovative project or service, including trialling the Innovative Partnership model.

The government is taking steps to explore the use of Innovation Partnerships procedures, with the VCSE Crown Representative also inputting into this initiative. This includes pilots in government, the first of which, the Hydrogen for Heat Programme run by BEIS, has now commenced. Further updates will be provided in due course.