Procurement activity: annual report 2022 to 2023

4. Conclusion

The 2022 to 2023 financial year saw changes in public finance and services, which impacted the way public bodies in Scotland procured their goods, works and services. While public bodies were still recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, they also faced the added pressure of the cost-of-living crisis. Within this context, public bodies worked to ensure that their procurement activities produced positive economic, social and environmental outcomes for people, organisations and local communities across the country.

These efforts were supported by further guidelines from the Scottish Government, notably SPPN 2/2022, updating guidance on prompt payments throughout the supply chain, and SPPN 3/2022, relating to integrating climate and circular economy considerations/requirements into procurements and subsequent reporting.

For our “good for businesses and their employees” objective, access to procurement spending for SMEs and the third sector has remained a priority for Scottish public bodies. For every pound spent on public procurement in Scotland in the financial year 2022 to 2023, 61 pence went to a SME. Scottish third sector organisations received an estimated £1.2 billion worth of public contracts during the financial year.

For our “good for places and communities” objective, £ 4.8 billion of known public procurement spend in financial year 2022 to 2023 was with suppliers in the 60% most deprived areas of Scotland, where the suppliers’ locations were known. This represented 54.6% of all known public procurement spend in Scotland. Further, £3.1 billion of that spend was with suppliers in the 40% most deprived areas.^[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.›

For our “good for society” objective, public bodies provided examples in their annual procurement reports of the ways in which they met their duties of equal treatment and non-discrimination, including: completing EQHRIAs for regulated procurements, and ensuring that corporate policy and procurement manuals were aligned with equal treatment and non-discrimination duties.

Finally, for our “open and connected” objective, 43 public bodies elected to produce an annual procurement report despite not reaching the £5 million threshold of regulated procurement spend which would require them to do so.

Public procurement’s role in delivering goods, works and services will continue to be important to the Scottish public sector’s future objectives in the next financial year’s report.