Review of Scottish public sector procurement in construction

Appendix 2 - Full terms of reference

To review the entire public and affordable housing sector construction procurement arrangement s in Scotland and make recommendations to support improvements in efficiency, delivery and sustainability of construction procurement projects across the Scottish public sector and to ensure that Scotland's public and affordable housing sectors make best use of both their and the industry's resources.

The review should seek to build on best practice in existing structures and resources, such as SFT's regional Hubs, wherever possible and should have regard to the principles of the 2006 McClelland report (translating them to a construction context) and the wider procurement reform landscape. Recommendations resulting from the review should be accompanied by an implementation plan.

The review will need to take account of:

• key stakeholder views;
• Audit Scotland's Review of Major Capital Projects (published in late June 2008), and the follow up report, published in January 2011 ("Management of Scottish Government's Capital Investment Programme");
• the UK Government's "Construction Strategy" published in 2011;
• the 2006 McClelland Report and,
• other sources of relevant information including the Procurement Information Hub and Scottish Government's "Construction Procurement Manual" (or other sources of good practice guidance for construction).

The Review will examine:

• current structure and organisation of construction procurement activity across the wider Scottish public sector, including affordable housing and Registered Social Landlords ( RSLs);
• skills and capability deployed by purchasing bodies;
• existing practices and procedures;
• measures of performance indicators and targets applied;
• existing sources of advice and guidance;
• application of project assurance techniques;
• sustainability in a construction context; and
• what lessons can be drawn from experience elsewhere ( e.g. the UK Government Construction Strategy).

The review will identify opportunities and make recommendations to ensure that the construction sector:

• achieves efficiency improvements through opportunities for collaboration where appropriate;
• raises its performance through improvements to capability, procurement practice and project assurance;
• is able to identify and quickly adopt emerging best practice and that practices are standardised wherever possible;
• adopts good practice in relation to sustainability, including life cycle costing and reduced carbon and energy consumption;
• manages common/major contractors and projects effectively;
• makes best use of available construction procurement/project skills; and
• makes best use of new and emerging innovations in techniques, technology and materials ( e.g. Building Information Modelling).