To ask the Minister of Finance and Personnel for his assessment of public procurement as a means of stimulating innovation.

Public procurement has a track record of securing innovative approaches including strategic partnerships, design and build, and exploiting the potential of technology as part of public sector reform.

A recent Innovation Lab run by the Department explored how in the future we can further stimulate innovative products and services through public procurement. It highlighted the role of those who are commissioning procurements in framing outcome-based specifications that provide options for innovative approaches; the importance of market engagement; and the need for a proportionate approach to risk management.

Public Contracts Regulations 2015, coming into effect on 26 February, provide for new Innovation Partnership models. Moreover, I am proposing that the Northern Ireland Public Governance Review, led by OECD, will take public procurement as one of its case studies, focussing, amongst other points, on the objectives that can be pursued through procurement. I also await with interest the publication of a NICVA report on innovation and procurement in March. In the meantime, CPD is drawing up plans to offer further support to commissioners in exploiting commercial knowledge and using procurement as a tool for change.