Procurement - use of consultants: guidance

Introduction

Documentation control

This guidance is owned and maintained by the Scottish Government’s Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate, enquiries should be addressed to scottishprocurement@gov.scot

Scope

We recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to consultancy services. As such, these procedures are mandatory for the Scottish Government (SG) and should be regarded as a useful benchmark for good practice by all organisations. The approval controls to buy consultancy services are mandatory for the SG, Executive Agencies and Non-Ministerial Departments.

Introduction

Consultancy is broadly defined as provision of advice to fill a knowledge gap. This can be to identify options and recommendations, or advice to assist with implementing solutions, and will be time limited. It will usually relate to business change or transformation, but can also focus on more technical, sector-specific expertise. The individuals (consultants) delivering the service (output) will operate outside of your organisation’s structure and staffing establishment. Services that are part of routine operations and where individuals are embedded in the organisation’s structure are typically not classed as consultancy.

Consultancy services should only be purchased in certain essential circumstances. When consultants are necessary, they need to be used sparingly, appropriately and effectively. Therefore, the SG must ensure that consultants are only used when:

• the work cannot be carried out internally, i.e. we are sure that the required knowledge and expertise is not available in-house or from some other source from which the SG can draw
• management is determined to take action to bring about change and demonstrate commitment to act upon the outputs
• you have approval from a delegated purchasing officer (DPO)
• they can bring relevant knowledge and have proven experience which will add value to the SG objectives
• there is sufficient in-house capacity to manage the contract effectively

These procedures:

• clarify when consultancy applies
• confirm the approval levels required when buying consultancy services
• set out the procurement and financial processes
• identify audit and Freedom of Information (FoI) requirements
• explain the processes for acquiring and managing consultancy services