Scottish Government procurement: annual report 2024 to 2025

Foreword

I am pleased to present the Scottish Government’s Annual Procurement Report for 2024 to 2025. This year’s report demonstrates the resilience, professionalism and innovation that continue to define public procurement in Scotland, delivering value for money while supporting wider national outcomes.

Our work continues to be shaped by the national Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland (PPSfS), which provides the shared vision for public procurement across the country. The Scottish Government Procurement Strategy sets out how we put that vision into practice within government, ensuring our approach is transparent, collaborative and focused on delivering sustainable economic and social value.

Our collective buying power is one of Scotland’s most important levers for economic, social and environmental progress. This year, we have continued to use that influence to strengthen supply chains, support quality employment, promote innovation and drive fair work practices. We have also deepened our work with SMEs, the third sector and supported businesses, ensuring that public contracts remain accessible and that opportunities are shared across Scotland’s diverse supplier base.

I was really pleased that we published the Scottish Government’s first SME and Third Sector Procurement Action Plan (2024–2026), following extensive engagement with key partners including the Procurement Supply Group (PSG). The Action Plan strengthens our longstanding commitment to reducing barriers for SMEs and third sector organisations, enhancing access to public contracts, and ensuring that procurement policy continues to reflect industry feedback and supplier needs. It sets out clear actions to reduce barriers and improve opportunities, collaboration and support for SMEs and third sector organisations, enhancing access to public contracts, and ensuring that procurement policy continues to reflect industry feedback and supplier needs.

We have delivered significant savings across our contracts and frameworks, demonstrating our commitment to achieving the best possible value for taxpayers. Our commercial teams have responded with agility to emerging pressures; whether rising operating costs, market uncertainty or increasing complexity in areas such as digital, construction, and climate-related procurement.

I was also pleased to see the launch of our inaugural Civil Engineering (Scotland) Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for projects up to £5 million, which went live in December 2024. This system complements the national Civil Engineering (Scotland) Framework for larger-scale works and represents a major step in strengthening Scotland’s civil engineering capability. Together, these mechanisms support the sector’s continued recovery post-Covid, improve access for SMEs, and embed strong sustainability and climate-focused requirements across public sector infrastructure delivery.

Innovation continues to grow as a core feature of our approach. Through programmes such as CivTech and Scotland Innovates, we are encouraging new ideas, accelerating the adoption of emerging technologies, and helping suppliers bring forward creative solutions to public sector challenges. Our focus on digital transformation, both within procurement systems and across the services we buy, is strengthening our capability and improving the way we manage data, engage with markets and monitor outcomes.

Across all of this work, the dedication, expertise and collaborative spirit of our procurement teams, suppliers and partners have been exceptional. Their efforts ensure that public procurement remains a strategic enabler for Scottish Government, driving not only savings but also social impact, inclusive growth, ethical practice and climate action.

Looking forward, we will build on the strong performance, working together to use the power of procurement to deliver high-quality, sustainable and innovative outcomes for the people of Scotland.

Nick Ford