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 52 of the August 2018 Civil Society Strategy, what steps his Department has taken to explore with the National Association of Local Councils and others the option for local charters between a principal council, local councils and community groups setting out respective responsibilities.

Government is fully committed to the Civil Society Strategy: it is the beginning of an ambitious, evolving work programme to help build a strong society. As stated in the Strategy, the government wishes to devolve more power to community groups and parishes. Onward devolution provides an opportunity for communities to help shape, and in some cases manage, public services in the places where they live. Communities themselves are often better placed than central or local government to identify the real issues they face, provided they are informed, equipped and trusted to do so. In development of its Communities Framework, which builds on the work of the Civil Society Strategy, MHCLG continues to work with sector partners to consider how we can support local councils and their partners in the design and delivery of services to create socially and economically strong places where community voices are heard. We are working to ensure that models of good community decision making are included in the Communities Framework.