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Publication - Factsheet

Supplier record update

Published
26 April 2023
Part of
Public sector

We need businesses and organisations who receive grant funding from or supply goods and services to the Scottish Government and other public sector bodies to update their details. Find out how to do this.

We are introducing a new system to send purchase orders to businesses that provide goods, services or works to us and our public sector partners.  

As part of the same process we are also updating information about organisations who receive grant funding from us.

To ensure a smooth transition to the new system, we need suppliers and grant-funded organisations to provide up-to-date details about their business or organisation.

Public bodies who will use the new purchasing system

 

Accountant in Bankruptcy
Boundaries Scotland Secretariat
Community Justice Scotland
Consumer Scotland
Core Scottish Government
Disclosure Scotland
Education Scotland
Environmental Standards Scotland
Food standards Scotland
Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
National Records Of Scotland
Office Of The Scottish Charities Regulator
Parole Board for Scotland
Police Investigations and Review Commissioner
Redress Scotland
Revenue Scotland
Risk Management Authority
Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland
Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service
Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
Scottish Fiscal Commission
Scottish Housing Regulator
Scottish Law Commission
Scottish Public Pensions Agency
Scottish Road Works Commissioner
Scottish Social Services Council
Scottish Parliament
Social Security Scotland
Student Awards Agency for Scotland
Transport Scotland

What your business or organisation needs to do

You will need to fill out an online form confirming details about your business or organisation. 

To use the form, you will first need to enter information from two separate emails that we will send you from the email address in the contact section below. Your business should receive these emails by 1 September 2023. If you don’t receive the emails by that date and they aren’t in the spam folder, please contact us at the address below.

The emails contain unique references, so we know that it's you when we receive your information. We send the references separately for security reasons.

  • the first email contains your vendor reference number and the postcode of your registered address if we have one on record
  • the second email contains a unique keyword

We cannot accept the form without this information.

You should complete and submit the form no later than 12 October 2023.

Access the supplier information request form.

What information you need to supply

The form contains guidance to help you fill it out.

Before you start filling it out, make sure you have the following information to hand.

Identification information

You will be asked to provide information unique to your business or organisation. This could include:

  • your business name and registration number as it appears on Companies House or the charities register, if you are an incorporated organisation or a registered charity
  • your counter party identification number (CPID) number, if you are a local council
  • your practice identification number, if you are a general practitioner

Tax/VAT status

You will also be asked about your tax/VAT status. If you operate within the UK tax regime you will need to provide:

  •  your organisations Unique Tax Reference (UTR) and Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, as well as
  • a Pay As You Go (PAYE) reference - if you operate withholding tax or are a member of the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)
  • your Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) for income tax self-assessment - if you are a sole trader

If you are registered elsewhere for tax, we will ask you to provide us with your tax code and the country of registration.

Contact information

You should provide:

  •  a general email address where we can send purchase orders and payment remittances. This can be an individual person's email address in extenuating circumstances, for exampe if your business operates as a sole trader or personal service company (PSC)
  • contact details for the department or person(s) best placed to answer purchase order or invoicing enquiries from us/public body partners - this will help us order quickly, receive our goods, services and/or works promptly and avoid any potential delays in paying invoices

Other information we will ask for

We will also ask you for:

  • some of your banking information because we can’t always match invoice information to supplier records - this creates additional work for our finance teams and could even delay supplier payment
  • general information about the size of your organisation, as it helps us understand our supplier portfolio better and respond to Freedom of Information requests

If you have any issues completing the form, please contact us at Scottish_Government_Payables@gov.scot as soon as possible so we can help you.

If you no longer trade with us

If you no longer trade with us, please complete sections 1 and 2 of the form. We won’t send you reminders about supplier updates once you are deactivated as a supplier. This doesn’t affect your ability to bid for future contracts.

If you trade through multiple business locations

 

If you trade with us or our public sector partners through multiple business locations, the named contact for each site will receive a request for information and each will have a unique keyword.

If you did not provide a named contact for a site during the site’s registration process, the request will be sent to the named contact for your organisation.

You may have provided the same contact information for more than one site. The most common differences between sites will be the trading name and the banking information your organisation provided during the supplier registration process.

If you have received multiple requests for information, its important that you respond to all of them so that our supplier management team can create valid sites in the new purchasing system. You can also tell us which sites to deactivate using the individual requests.

How the new purchasing system will affect your business

Once the new system is live, the only visible difference for your business or organisation will be purchase order prefixes as these are changing from a 3 to a 4 letter code. Purchase orders from the Scottish Government will begin with SCOTX. Other public bodies will have a different prefix.

Your business or organisation will still receive purchase orders in the same way as you do now.

Through a secure online supplier portal, you will be able to:

  • view purchase orders
  • submit invoices
  • send us messages
  • edit some of your business information such as bank details

You don’t have to do anything just now. We will create a portal account for you and send you login information once the portal is live.

Your support during this period of transformation is appreciated.

Contact

Email: Scottish_Government_Payables@gov.scot

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