Public Procurement and Property

Celebrating links between sustainable procurement and community wealth building

March 7, 2023 by Melissa Reilly No Comments | Category Community Wealth building, Procurement news, Sustainable Procurement

Last week we published Scotland’s journey of achieving sustainable procurement outcomes 2002-2022: independent review.

Procurement and local spend is a key pillar of Community Wealth Building. Following on from the Review publication, we have welcomed Mr McKee and Mr Arthur to celebrate the links between sustainable procurement outcomes and community wealth.

The video opens with Mr McKee – Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise, then Mr Arthur – Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth.

Watch their short video below, a transcript is available at the bottom of this page.

In the next few weeks we will be sharing a second video featuring peers from across the public sector who contributed to the Review research consultation: Scottish Prison Service, Renfrewshire Council and LINK Group.

Whilst this Review looks back at the past 20 years, we are always looking to the future to drive forward the power of procurement. Look out for the first-ever Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland being published later this year as a roadmap for the next 5 years.

• Find out more via the “Creating jobs through public spending” News Release on gov.scot
• Read the full Review on gov.scot
• Readers may be interested in contributing to the live Community Wealth Building consultation which is live until 25 April 2023.

For further information on public procurement in Scotland please visit www.gov.scot/procurement

Please email enquiries to scottishprocurement@gov.scot

Follow us online:

Dual speaker transcript:

Ivan McKee: The Review has shown the huge progress we’ve made over the last 20 years on sustainable procurement, and that’s down to the commitment and passion across a whole range of sectors.

As we go forward, the networks we have established across those different sectors really come into play, working together, to focus on delivering further progress on this very important agenda.

At the heart of this is a commitment to continuous improvement working together across the public, private and third sectors to identify where we can review practices, make them more efficient and effective, and put everybody together to deliver on the opportunities that lie ahead of us.

We’ve made great strides in our progress so far, but of course, as always, much more we can do.

That’s about collaboration, innovation, and resilience.

It’s about partners right across the procurement community working together to deliver on that potential.

Tom Arthur: I’m delighted to see this review showcase the significant impact Scotland’s approach to procurement is having in communities the length and breadth of Scotland.

Supporting our local economies and supporting businesses.

Procurement and spend is one of the central pillars of community wealth building, and as such we have an opportunity to build on the excellent achievements that have been made to date supporting local economies, localising supply chains and empowering communities.

In Scotland we have a strong system of support for suppliers.

Support which allows suppliers to bid for and secure public sector contracts, and it is that support that we are committed to building upon going forward.

Sustainable procurement will be integral to achieving a wellbeing economy.

Fundamentally, a wellbeing economy is about bringing parity between the economic, social and environmental dimensions.

And over the past few decades in developing Scotland’s sustainable model of procurement, we have seen greater social and environmental impact coming from procurement decisions, and we’ll be able to take this work further through our community wealth building aspirations.

Community wealth building is fundamentally about ensuring that more of the wealth generated within a community stays within a community, and that communities have more say over how that wealth is used. And clearly procurement is going to be a key part of achieving these aims.

Tags: good for places and communities, good for society, open and connected, Review, sustainable procurement

Comments