Public Procurement and Property

Annual report on procurement activity in Scotland 2020-2021 published

January 19, 2023 by Melissa Reilly No Comments | Category Four Outcomes for Public Procurement, Procurement news, Procurement reports, Scottish Procurement

Scottish Ministers have published the fourth annual report on procurement activity in Scotland.

The report provides an overview of public procurement activity in Scotland in 2020 to 2021.

Published in line with the requirements of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, the report draws on evidence from a range of sources; in particular, it is informed by the annual procurement reports published by individual public bodies, and by procurement spend data taken from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub.

“As we transition into a phase of recovery following the pandemic, we see this as an opportunity to implement bold and ambitious plans for the country’s future. We want to use our significant public spending power to make Scotland a better place to live, work and do business. Procurement plays a crucial role in this. Whether we are buying goods, works or services, we can use our considerable spending power across the public sector in Scotland to promote inclusive economic growth, create opportunities for all, and support and accelerate a just transition towards a net-zero economy. This report demonstrates the significant achievements and improvements made during 2020 to 2021.”

Ivan McKee MSP, Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise.

The key messages and findings for the 2020-2021 reporting year are as follows:

• despite the huge disruption caused by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scottish public sector has continued to make progress in delivering against public procurement objectives and legislative requirements
• total Scottish public sector procurement spend (in Scotland and elsewhere) during the year reached £14.5 billion. In Scotland alone, total spend was £8.3 billion (compared with £7.4 billion last year)
• it is estimated that £14.5 billion of procurement spend supported around £12.5 billion of economic activity, around 120,000 full-time equivalent jobs and contributed around £6.9 billion to Scottish GDP
• SMEs accounted for 50.9% (or £3.5 billion) of procurement spend in Scotland (compared with 58.0% last year)
• almost half (48.7%, or £3.9 billion) of spend in Scotland was spent with suppliers based in Scotland’s 60% most deprived areas (compared with 52.8% last year)
• £3.6 billion (or 43.7%) of spend in Scotland was with suppliers based within the local area of the purchasing body
• across 95 public bodies providing the relevant information, around 1,700 regulated contracts including a scored Fair Work criterion were awarded
• 89% of public bodies provided evidence that they had carried out their procurements in a transparent manner (compared with 79% last year)
• 82% of public bodies provided evidence of the ways in which they had carried out their procurement activity with regard to equal treatment and non-discrimination
• 71% of public bodies provided evidence of how they were addressing environmental wellbeing and climate change through procurement (compared with 67% last year)

Please forward enquiries to scottishprocurement@gov.scot 

To find out more about Public Procurement in Scotland, please visit www.gov.scot/procurement

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Tags: Ministers report, procurement reports, Public procurement, public sector, Scottish Procurement, Scottish public sector

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