Public procurement: survey of suppliers 2024

Conclusion

This report sets out the findings of the second iteration of the Scottish Government’s Survey of Suppliers to the Scottish Public Sector. It covers aspects of procurement from bidding to contract delivery from the perspective of suppliers of Scottish public sector contracts.

The survey’s respondents are supplying a wide variety of contracts in terms of their business sectors, contract value, and sector of the public sector (i.e. local government, central government, higher education, NHS or registered social landlords).

Key limitations for this research were:

• the lower response rate in this survey compared to the last edition of the survey in 2020 (344 respondents in this survey compared to 1,556 respondents in 2020) limited the depth of information recorded;
• participants were self-selecting, the responses may not be representative of the population of suppliers to the Scottish public sector as a whole.

A comprehensive discussion of the limitations of this research and associated mitigations can be found in Section 2.2.

This research has generated a number of insights in relation to suppliers’ perspectives on Scottish public sector procurement. Key findings from the research cover a range of topics including bidding; the journey for suppliers; sustainable procurement; challenge of procurement exercises; consortium bidding; sub-contracting; training, support and advice; and overall perspectives of Scottish public sector procurement.

On feedback received on bids for Scottish public sector contracts, respondents rated the feedback they received positively. Some 48% of respondents (91 in total, n=191) rated the feedback they received as good or excellent, compared with only 15% of respondents (28 in total) who rated it as poor or very poor.

In relation to the journey for suppliers, the majority of respondents who had bid for Scottish public sector contracts reported that they were able to submit bids in line with Scottish public bodies’ specifications. Notably, the majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they were able to:

• communicate the value of their propositions (62%, 156 respondents, n=252);
• satisfy the qualification criteria (85%, 214 respondents, n=253);
• respond effectively to evaluation criteria (64%, 161 respondents, n=252);
• use previous feedback to inform future bids (53%, 133 respondents, n=253); and
• submit a bid with in the timescale (79%, 199 respondents, n=252).

On sustainable procurement, the majority of respondents reported contracts often or always include:

• community benefits (68%, 171 respondents, n=251);
• Fair Work practices (79%, 198 respondents, n=250);
• environmental impacts (75%, 189 respondents, n=251); and
• payment terms within the supply chain (57%, 142 respondents, n=248).

Where respondents were dissatisfied with the process and procedures of a procurement exercise carried out by a Scottish public body in the past two years, the most common actions taken were to raise the issue with the public body (48%, 61 respondents, n=128) or to take no action (45%, 58 respondents). Very few respondents had heard of the SPoE, the Scottish Government’s resource for independent advice on specific public procurement tender exercises in Scotland.

Only 40 respondents reported having bid for a Scottish public sector contract as part of a consortium. However, 58% of those 40 respondents (or 23 respondents in total), rated the experience as good or very good.

Among the 74 respondents who reported that they had acted as a sub-contractor on a Scottish public sector contract, 78% (or 58 respondents in total) rated their organisation’s experience as good or excellent.

The majority of respondents (57%, 195 in total, n=341) reported that they had not received any training, support or advice on tendering for Scottish public sector contracts. However, among the respondents who had received this, 57% (69 in total, n=122) rated the experience of receiving that training, support or advice as good or excellent.

Several common themes emerged in responses to the open questions throughout the survey. The first was that many respondents wanted more visibility of several aspects of the procurement system. These included improved advertising of procurement opportunities which might be relevant to them; and improved signposting to training, support and advice. Similarly, though 129 respondents reported having been dissatisfied with the processes and procedures of a procurement exercise carried out by a Scottish public body in the past two years, fewer than five respondents knew about the Scottish Government advice and support service, the SPoE.

Second, many respondents reported difficulty with receiving clear, consistent communication and documentation from Scottish public bodies. Examples of these concerns included a lack of clarity in tender documents, inconsistency in receiving good quality feedback on bids, and problems contacting and communicating with Scottish public sector buyers.

Finally, many SME respondents felt that it was difficult to compete against larger suppliers, especially on price. Frequently, this was communicated in terms of a perceived bias towards larger suppliers on the part of public bodies.