Procurement activity: annual report 2023 to 2024

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

This report provides a summary of Scottish public bodies’ procurement activity during the 2023 to 2024 financial year, and was published in line with the requirements of section 21 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”). This is the seventh iteration of this report.^[1]

Public bodies reported facing several challenges over the 2023 to 2024 financial year. These included the impacts of global conflicts and cyber-attacks, and the continuing impacts of Brexit and high inflation (Scottish Government, 2026). This report is an opportunity to report on the ways in which public bodies procured goods, services and works across Scotland in this context.

The 2014 Act requires that Scottish public bodies which expect to have at least£5 million of regulated procurement spend in a financial year to publish a procurement strategy before the start of the financial year setting out how it intends to carry out its regulated procurements (section 15). Additionally, they are then required to publish an annual procurement report as soon as is practicable after the end of the financial year outlining how they have conducted their procurements in a manner which is compliant with their procurement strategy (section 18). A group of two or more public bodies may choose to publish a joint procurement strategy or annual procurement report.

The report is structured around the four key outcomes which underpin the delivery of public procurement in Scotland.^[2] It demonstrates the steps which public bodies have taken to deliver procurement activity which is:

• good for businesses and their employees
• good for society
• good for places and communities
• open and connected

1.2 Methodology

The 2014 Act requires that Ministers prepare and lay before the Scottish Parliament each year a report outlining a summary of the information contained within public bodies’ annual procurement reports. This report must contain:

• the regulated procurements that were completed during the reporting year;
• any community benefit requirements that were fulfilled during the year;
• any steps taken to facilitate the involvement of supported businesses in regulated procurement;
• anticipated regulated procurements over the following two years; and
• any other information that the Scottish Ministers may consider to be appropriate.

To address these research objectives, we used a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods. This consisted of descriptive statistics of the public procurement activity undertaken and total public spend in that area (where applicable), and qualitative analysis to explore the ways in which that activity had been undertaken, with case study examples. The research project involved a combination of externally commissioned and in-house research.

A breakdown of the public bodies whose procurement information was used in this report is provided in Appendix 3.

1.2.1 Commissioned analysis

The Scottish Government commissioned social research agency The Lines Between to provide an analysis of information provided in individual public bodies’ annual procurement reports (including standardised data templates)^[3] and strategies for the purpose of gaining an understanding of public procurement activity in Scotland during each of the three following financial years: 2023 to 2024, 2024 to 2025 and 2025 to 2026.^[4] This report covers the reports collected for the 2023 to 2024 financial year.

To enable the analysis to be completed in time for inclusion in this report, each year the Scottish Government sets a cutoff date by which public bodies’ annual procurement reports and strategies must be submitted in order to be included in the analysis. The deadline for submission of 2023 to 2024 strategies and annual procurement reports was 6 March 2025, by which date we had received one of each from 125 public bodies.^[5]

The Lines Between adopted a desk-based methodology to review the procurement strategies and annual procurement reports. The analysis was based on a set of criteria that reflected the minimum required content for strategies and annual procurement reports, as set out in the 2014 Act.^[6] Each annual procurement report and strategy was read in full and individually assessed against these standards. For example, the 2014 Act requires that public bodies detail how they had facilitated involvement of supported businesses in procurement activities during the financial year. If an annual procurement report included a statement noting the public body’s specific policies related to encouraging the involvement of supported businesses in procurement activities, it was assessed as having met the requirement.

A team of five analysts reviewed the reports and strategies. The Scottish Government and The Lines Between coproduced standardised guidance on the legislative requirements regarding what should be included in annual procurement reports and strategies to support the team of analysts in determining what would constitute sufficient evidence to meet the requirements. This included examples drawn from previous reporting cycles. For example, when assessing whether reports demonstrated how regulated procurements had been carried out in accordance with general duties, analysts were reminded of the statutory requirement and given different examples of acceptable evidence (Scottish Government, 2026).

A standardised analysis framework was created using Snap Surveys, a questionnaire design software. The analysts used this framework to input their assessment of each strategy and annual procurement report against each criteria. Alongside assessments of whether the reports met legislative requirements, the framework included open-ended text boxes to enable analysts to record qualitative observations, highlight specific examples, and comment on how fully each requirement had been addressed. The analysis framework contained 11 sections, including ‘organisation details’, ‘summary of regulated procurement & future regulated procurement’, ‘general duties’ and ‘sustainable procurement’. The full framework is available as an appendix to The Lines Between’s report, Analysis of Public Body Procurement Reports & Strategies (2023 to 2024) (Scottish Government, 2026).

A structured quality assurance process was applied to ensure that the analysis carried out was consistent, robust and accurate.

First, a pilot stage was implemented to test the analysis framework and establish a consistent approach among the team of five analysts. The first step of the pilot stage involved all five analysts convening to collectively and collaboratively analyse one public body’s procurement strategy and annual report. This exercise allowed for any queries about the analysis process to be raised and addressed, and helped ensure a consistent approach to the analysis was adopted across the team.

After this initial session, another public body’s procurement strategy and annual report was selected and analysed separately by each team member. The analysis was then collated and reviewed to confirm the analytical assessments were consistent across the team. Where inconsistencies were identified, these were discussed by the team to agree a solution, and further guidance was then issued to address this going forward.

Following this exercise, the third and final step of the pilot stage involved each team member independently analysing the procurement strategies and annual reports of two public bodies. These returns were then checked in full by the designated quality assurer, with analysts being ‘signed off’ to continue with analysis following the pilot stage.

Quality assurance protocols were implemented beyond the pilot phase, with the designated quality assurer continuing to perform regular, random audits on each team member’s analysis. The quality assurer audited the analysis of 25% of the annual procurement reports and strategies received during each two-week period throughout the analysis phase of their work.

As part of this analysis, The Lines Between also collated and analysed quantitative data submitted by public bodies in standardised data templates using Microsoft Excel. A total of 124 public bodies submitted data templates (Scottish Government, 2026).

To provide analysis of public procurement spend broken down by the characteristics of individual suppliers (i.e. by location, number of employees or business category), this report uses information drawn from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub (“the Hub”).^[7] The Scottish Government commissioned DXC Technology, starting in 2021, to provide a web-based spend analysis tool.^[8] Each year, the Scottish Government requests raw accounts payable data from bodies across the Scottish public sector. This data is enhanced by DXC Technology using publicly available data and data from the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) platform in order to classify suppliers by size, location, area of business, charity status and other characteristics, where this information is available. DXC Technology then uploads the data to the Hub and makes it available to participating public bodies for analysis.^[9] For the 2023 to 2024 financial year, 107 public bodies provided their information to the Hub.

1.2.2 In-house research

The data compiled for the Hub was subsequently analysed by a Scottish Government social researcher to produce descriptive statistics of public procurement spend broken down by different supplier characteristics. We compiled the data into cross-tabulation tables based on the total aggregated reported public procurement spend. This total procurement spend reported to the Hub was compared against measures outlined in legislation and guidance, including the location of the spend, supplier type and size, and the proximity of contracting public bodies and their contracted suppliers.

We also compared some data points from the Hub with other publicly available datasets to gain further insights into areas of interest beyond what the Hub or annual procurement reports provide. For example, all data related to the deprivation locality has been generated by comparing address data from the Hub and the publicly available Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) dataset. Figures drawn from these comparisons should be viewed as estimates.

1.2.3 Limitations

There are a number of limitations in relation to the data and analysis used in this report.

We do not have a comprehensive list of all public bodies who either undertook a public procurement exercise during the 2023 to 2024 financial year, or who were supplied as part of an existing public contract. Moreover, not all public bodies are required to produce an annual procurement report or contribute to the Hub. The 2014 Act does not require an annual procurement report from public bodies whose regulated procurement spend is below £5 million during the financial year. Thus, public bodies whose regulated procurement spend was below this £5 million threshold and who opted not to produce an annual procurement report are not included in this report. Additionally, in our analysis, we did not include annual procurement reports which were published after the cutoff date for analysis of 6 March 2025. Similarly, participation in the Hub is voluntary. As such, this report presents a summary of what was reported to the Hub or in annual procurement reports that were published by 6 March 2025, and should not be viewed as representing all public procurement activity in Scotland for the 2023 to 2024 financial year.

Annual procurement report data mostly relates to spend regulated under the 2014 Act. This means that these figures represent only contracts valued at £50,000 or more for goods or services, or £2 million or more for works. This report notes where figures relate to regulated public procurement spend. Where figures relate to other forms of public procurement spend, this is also noted.

While there is guidance on what information should be provided in annual procurement reports, public bodies have discretion over how they report on their procurement activities. Therefore, the qualitative analysis for this report is mostly restricted to case study examples from individual public bodies. For a more detailed analysis of these activities, please see The Lines Between’s report, Analysis of Public Body Procurement Reports & Strategies (2023 to 2024) (Scottish Government, 2026).

Not all submitted annual procurement reports contain data for every measure examined in this analysis. Where data is not available from all 125 reports for a particular measure, the number of reports providing relevant information is specified in the text of this report.

Comparisons between different reporting years should be treated with caution. The basket of goods, works and services procured by Scottish public bodies changes each year, as does the list of public bodies who are required to produce an annual procurement report.

The Lines Between’s analysis framework for annual procurement reports involved manual inputs from analysts’ assessments of annual procurement reports. There is therefore a risk of human error in this process. This has been mitigated by quality assurance checks by The Lines Between at each stage of the analysis.

There are some gaps in the data reported to the Hub due to information being unavailable in the data sources used to populate it (i.e. raw accounts payable, PCS, and publicly available data). One example is where information, such as supplier name and address, has been redacted for sole traders operating under their own names on the grounds that it is personal information and therefore subject to redactions on the basis of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The table in Appendix 4 provides a breakdown of gaps in the data reported to the Hub.