Public procurement: survey of suppliers 2024
This is the report for the Survey of Suppliers to the Scottish Public Sector, held between 10 September and 19 November 2024. The survey aimed to help us better understand the Scottish public procurement process from the perspective of suppliers.
Footnotes
1 The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 defines SMEs as businesses with fewer than 250 employees.
2 A Scottish public body is an organisation for which either the Scottish Government or Scottish Parliament is responsible and with whom they have a direct relationship. This includes, but is not limited to, the Scottish Government and the 32 Scottish local authorities, as well as NHS Scotland, universities and colleges, and registered social landlords. For more information on the Scottish Government’s policies towards its devolved public bodies, please see the Scottish Government’s webpage outlining public bodies in Scotland.
3 These local or central government funded bodies might include a council-funded service provider such as leisure centres, social care, waste or environmental health services; or a central government funded service provider such as a college or university, an executive agency or a non-departmental public body that supplies to other Scottish public bodies.
4 The Scottish Government defines supported businesses as organisations whose main aim is to integrate disabled or disadvantaged people socially and professionally; and at least 30% of its employees are disabled or disadvantaged.
5 Business sectors were defined using the Standard Industrial Classification.
6 Categories with fewer than 5 respondents have been omitted.
7 Public Contract Scotland provides a breakdown of these Local Authority Regions on its website.
8 The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 can be found here.
9 For more information on Quick Quote contracts, please see the Buyer User Guide – Quick Quotes.
10 Contracts above the threshold of £50,000 excluding VAT for goods and services contracts and £2 million for works are known as a “regulated procurement”. These contracts are regulated by the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. This regulated procurement spend is considered to be “significant” if it exceeds £5 million over the financial year.
11 For more information on the Scottish Government’s guidance on the use of AI in procurement, please see our guidance in the Procurement Journey.
12 For more information on the Scottish Government’s guidance on the relationship between Scottish public bodies and suppliers, please see the Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook.
13 For more information on the sustainable procurement duty, please see the sustainable procurement duty section of the Scottish Government’s policy guide to public sector procurement.
14 For more information on the SPoE, please see the Scottish Government’s information page on the service.
15 Please note that the “yes” results were aggregated.
16 For more information on consortium bids and their use for SMEs, please see the explanation provided on the Supplier Development Programme website.
17 The Scottish Government acknowledges the role of sub-contracting opportunities as a means of improving access for SMEs to Scottish public sector contracts in our SME and third sector action plan 2024-2026.
18 For more information on the Scottish Government’s policies towards prompt payment, please see the Scottish Procurement Policy Manual.
19 For information on the Supplier Development Programme, please see their website. Scotland Excel’s training offerings are listed on their website as well.
20 For more information on the Supplier Development Programme, please see the Supplier Development Programme website.
21 Meet the Buyer events are information sessions which allow prospective suppliers to meet representatives of the Scottish public bodies.