Procurement strategy: April 2025 to March 2028

7. Cross Sector Leadership and Collaboration

Collaborative working for procurement across the public sector, and proactive engagement with the private and third sector, is critical to delivering procurement services which work better for the people of Scotland. To help co-ordinate this, we engage with two leadership groups:

• the Public Procurement Group (PPG), supported by several forums; and
• the Procurement Supply Group (PSG).

Public Procurement Group (PPG)

Purpose: Leadership group for public procurement across Scotland, comprising the heads of Procurement Centres of Expertise and senior Scottish Government procurement officials. Working together to set the strategic direction and priorities for public procurement in Scotland. The PPG ensures that the collective spending power of the public sector delivers collaborative procurement services that support sustainable and inclusive growth.

• Construction Leadership Forum
• Collaborative Leads Group
• Climate Procurement Forum
• Professional Practice and Development Forum
• Procurement PolicyForum

Procurement Supply Group (PSG)

Purpose: Leadership group for public procurement suppliers in Scotland, providing an ongoing framework for dialogue on procurement policy and practice to ensure it continues to be informed by the experiences of suppliers. It is composed of leaders and influencers from organisations that represent: SMEs, the third sector, social enterprises, care and support service providers, businesses, construction and industry.

The PPG and PSG, alongside other forums such as the Construction Leadership Forum (led by the Minister for Public Finance), provide other means of collaborative, cross sector engagement on policy, practice, information sharing and innovation.

We further engage with and support suppliers through direct engagement with representative bodies, the Supplier Development Programme, SME round tables, supplier surveys, forums, our Single Point of Enquiry service and benchmarking. The Scottish Government is responsible for public procurement policy in Scotland and engages with the UK Government and other devolved administrations to share approaches and best practice.