Procurement activity: annual report 2022 to 2023

Footnotes

1. For the purposes of this report, a “financial year” covers the period between 1 April and 31 March for most public bodies. However, some universities and colleges use a financial year from 1 August until 31 July.
2. These were identified as the main drivers of the cost crisis by the House of Commons Library in July 2024.
3. The report outlining the Scottish Government’s ongoing steps towards COVID-19 recovery can be found here.
4. For the purposes of this report, a “public body” is an organisation that is subject to Scottish public procurement legislation, and is required to produce a procurement strategy and annual procurement report. The five main categories of public body are local governments (i.e. local councils), National Health Service (NHS) or other government health bodies, universities and colleges, registered social landlords, and central government bodies.
5. For the purposes of the 2014 Act, procurement expenditure is deemed to be significant if it equates to at least £5 million of regulated procurement spend. A regulated procurement is any procurement carried out by a public body in relation to the award of a contract with an estimated value of £50,000 excluding VAT and above for goods and services and of £2 million and above excluding VAT for works.
6. Guidelines and best practice for annual procurement reports are outlined in SPPN 2/2023.
7. These four categories are identified and defined in more detail in the Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland 2023 to 2028.
8. Public bodies also provide a data template submission alongside their annual procurement reports. Details of how the annual procurement reports and data submission should be laid out are provided in the Scottish Procurement Policy Note SPPN 2/2023.
9. This includes all 32 Scottish local authorities, and the local authority contracting organisation Tayside Contracts.
10. Where supplier size is known, and where suppliers have registered to PCS with a Scottish-based business address.
11. Where supplier size is known.
12. Where supplier size and location is known.
13. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, four of which had not provided this data.
14. These figures were drawn from anaylsis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, four of which had not provided this data.
15. Aberdeen City Council’s annual procurement report for 2022 to 2023.
16. Where they have registered a Scottish-based business address.
17. These examples represent business activities where at least £400 million of procurement spend outwith Scotland was reported. The examples were drawn from the Hub’s data, and cover procurement spend with suppliers not registered to a Scottish address.
18. Previous reports are available here: 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022.
19. Transport Scotland’s annual procurement report for 2022 to 2023.
20. For more information about the development and use of Scottish Government Input-Output tables please see the Scottish Government website.
21. This definition can be found in the PPSS: Public procurement strategy: 2023 to 2028 – gov.scot
22. This definition can be found in the Scottish Government’s SME and third sector action plan 2024-2026.
23. The Companies Act 2006 defines turnover as ‘the amounts derived from the provision of goods and services, after deduction of (a) trade discounts, (b) value added tax, and (c) any other taxes based on the amounts so derived’.
24. Public procurement spend is considered to be in Scotland where suppliers have registered a Scottish-based business address.
25. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 78 of which had not provided this data.
26. This is the definition provided in the procurement SME and third sector action plan 2024-2026.
27. NHS Highland’s annual procurement report 2022 to 2023.
28. The Equality Act 2010 defines as: “A person (P) has a disability if— (a) P has a physical or mental impairment, and (b) the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on P’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”
29. There is no authoritative definition of “disadvantaged”. However, the EU Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU describes disadvantaged persons as: “The unemployed, members of disadvantaged minorities, or otherwise socially marginalised groups.”
30. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 14 of which had not provided this data.
31. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 26 of which had not provided this data.
32. Supported businesses are those whose workforce comprises at least 30% disabled or disadvantaged people, and whose main aim is to integrate disabled or disadvantaged people socially and professionally.
33. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 26 of which had not provided this data.
34. University of Strathclyde annual procurement report for 2022 to 2023.
35. Until the 2021 to 2022 report, the business categories were based on the “vCode” classification, which was developed and is owned by the third party supplier responsible for providing the Scottish Procurement Information Hub.
36. The statutory guidance under the 2014 Act lays out public bodies’ duties towards Fair Work First, and its benefits.
37. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 21 of which had not provided this data.
38. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 27 of which had not provided this data.
39. This figure was drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 40 of which had not provided this data. This figure will likely reflect an element of double counting. This is because while each public body provides information on their number of unique suppliers, it is likely that at least some suppliers were awarded regulated contracts by more than one public body during that year; these suppliers would therefore be counted more than once.
40. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 27 of which had not provided this data.
41. Scottish Public Pensions Agency’s annual procurement report 2022 to 2023.
42. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 31 of which had not provided this data.
43. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 31 of which had not provided this data.
44. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 31 of which had not provided this data.
45. By “on time”, we mean within the time period set out in the contract terms.
46. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 26 of which had not provided this data.
47. Note that the analysis draws on the postcodes of where suppliers are registered as based, and therefore does not uncover the onward impacts of the spend itself. Therefore, what is being measured is the extent to which public procurement suppliers are based in areas of greater or lesser deprivation.
48. Deprivation statistics are calculated down to the level of ‘data zones’, of which there are 6,976 in Scotland.
49. Public procurement spend is considered to be in Scotland where suppliers have registered a Scottish-based business address.
50. These figures were generated from analysis of data from the Hub and data from the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and cover only where the SIMD designation of a supplier’s registered address is known.
51. This data is from the Businesses in Scotland dataset, but is not published publicly.
52. Note that in Figure 10, urban areas include large urban areas, other urban areas, accessible small towns, remote small towns and very remote small towns. Rural areas comprise accessible rural areas, remote rural areas and very remote rural areas.
53. Spend is classed as local if the purchasing authority is based in the same local authority area as the supplier, whereas it is classed as elsewhere if they are in different local authorities. The analysis is dependent on known supplier postcodes, which are matched to the list of postcodes in the local authority area in which the customer is based. The local authority area is defined by the ONS.
54. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 15 of which had not provided this data.
55. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 42 of which had not provided this data.
56. Dumfries and Galloway Council’s annual procurement report 2022 to 2023.
57. This is defined within the Procurement Equality Duties.
58. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 10 of which had not provided this data.
59. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 132 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 26 of which had not provided this data.
60. The Sustainable Procurement Duty is included in the 2014 Act.
61. More information on the number of completions of these eLearning modules is provided in section 2.6.3 of this report: Improving procurement capability and professional development.
62. These examples were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 26 of which had not provided this information.
63. Stirling Council’s annual procurement report for 2022 to 2023.
64. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 15 of which had not provided this data.
65. Note: this includes only the annual procurement reports that were submitted to the Scottish Government in time to be included in this report.
66. OECD’s report on ‘Professionalising the public procurement workforce’, January 2022.
67. The New Zealand Government’s ‘Growing procurement capability’.
68. For more information on the projects on which the Scottish Government supported ActionAid, please see ActionAid’s video.
69. More information on Civil Service Live can be found at the conference’s webpage, found here.
70. This figure was based on the number of individual evaluation codes.
71. For more information, see the statutory guidance underpinning the 2014 Act, which is available on the Scottish Government website.
72. Projects being considered, approved or closed by ANIA are listed on their website.
73. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 41 of which had not provided this data.
74. Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service’s annual procurement report 2022 to 2023.
75. These figures were drawn from analysis of the 133 annual procurement reports submitted for analysis, 15 of which had not provided this data.
76. These examples were drawn from the 125 annual procurement reports that provided examples of future activity. A further 8 annual procurement reports did not provide this detail.
77. These figures were generated from analysis of data from the Hub and data from the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and cover only where the SIMD designation of a supplier’s registered address is known.