Scottish Government procurement strategy: April 2022 to March 2024

4. Strategy Rationale and Context

There has been a substantial programme of activity across the public sector in Scotland to improve public procurement since 2006. We have moved from a centrally led programme to a more collaborative landscape with a shared common vision, underpinned by The Act, which provides clear direction to public sector organisations and sets out clear procurement responsibilities and accountabilities, promoting local decision making. We take account of wider legislation and policy which impacts on the procurement process. We remain committed to doing more to continually improve procurement approaches and outcomes, assessing the effectiveness of steps already taken.

By doing so, we ensure Scotland has innovative, world-leading legislation, policy and approaches.

The work we undertake is determined by a range of strategic drivers providing the services our customers need.

Figure: Strategic drivers

Scottish Government Procurement Strategy

• Scotland’s NSET
• Programme for Government
• National Performance Framework
• Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act
• 4 Outcomes
• Customer Demand
• Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations
• Scottish Government People strategy
• Manifesto

The Scottish Government’s key priorities are centred on contributing to Scotland’s purpose of creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all to flourish, through increasing sustainable and inclusive economic growth. This is underpinned by the National Performance Framework, Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET) and the annual Programme for Government which sets out the plan for policy delivery, public procurement priorities and legislation over the next year.

We ensure compliance to, and delivery of the priorities through the sustainable procurement duty as outlined in The Act.

Our strategy continues to support the Scottish Government’s work on addressing climate change, tackling child poverty, delivering Covid-19 recovery and building our constitution.

The sustainable procurement duty is supported by tools which include the National Outcomes and Indicators and provide a structured approach to what we buy. They help public sector organisations identify opportunities to include economic, social and environmental considerations in contracts and show how our procurement activity contributes to the National Outcomes and, in turn, to Scotland’s NSET.

We develop sourcing strategies for each procurement project worth £50,000 or more. This work is supported by the Sustainability Test and, where appropriate, the Sustainable Public Procurement Prioritisation Tool (SPPPT). We track our contribution to the Scottish Government’s purpose and priorities through our compliance with the sustainable procurement duty.

4.1 Power of Procurement 2020-2021

SPPD manage 652 live contracts worth £4.7bn

£196m savings made by the public sector using Scottish Government contracts and frameworks

(up 22.5% on previous year)

£1bn public sector spend through Scottish Government contracts and frameworks

SPPD issued 223 Invitations to Tender and 100 new regulated contracts

£329m Scottish Government spend

295 Scottish Government suppliers

57% of our suppliers delivering regulated contracts are SMEs

Good for businesses and employees

Of the £329 million that Scottish Government spent through its contracts, over £106 million went directly to SMEs, with many more SMEs benefiting through our supply chains; they shared over £75 million of spend as subcontractors, at least £23 million of that going to Scottish SMEs.

Good for society

As well as continuing to support thousands of existing jobs, our contracts enabled the creation of 146 brand new jobs, 27 apprenticeships, 31 work placements and 453 qualifications to be achieved through training.

Good for places and communities

21 new contracts were awarded with community benefits present, bringing the total of live contracts with community benefits to 62.

Open and connected

Across Scotland, over 450 organisations continued to use Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) to advertise contract opportunities. During the reporting period, 11,025 contract opportunities were advertised and 15,656 suppliers awarded contracts.

* The £329m spend figure contains a small proportion of spend with suppliers for which the size and postcode is unknown.