Public Procurement and Property

Supporting innovation through procurement SPPN 03/2023

July 27, 2023 by Melissa Reilly No Comments | Category innovation, Scotland Innovates, Scottish Procurement, Scottish Procurement Policy Note

Scotland has a vision of becoming one of the most innovative small nations in the world over the next decade. This is key to our efforts to transform the economy and drive lasting improvement in Scotland’s economic performance.

As part of our efforts to support innovation in Scottish public procurement we have published a new policy note on recent innovation-related developments. These developments include the introduction of three new notices to Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) and a new Supplier Collaboration Tool. The policy note also includes information on the new questions which have been added to existing regulated procurement contract notices and award notices. These questions, which are designed to assist public bodies to report on innovation, relate to the Sustainable Procurement Duty and will not be published in the notices.

Guidance on these new innovation-related developments has been published on the Procurement Journey.

Finally, the policy note reminds the buying community that the new Scotland Innovates service is live. This service allows businesses and members of the public to propose innovative goods, services and works to the public sector. Wherever relevant, public bodies should direct those with innovative solutions to Scotland Innovates as a potential route to market.

Tom Arthur, Minister for Community Wealth and Public Finance, commented: “Scotland aims to become one of the most innovative small nations in the world. Innovation has the potential to change lives and power a wealthier, fairer and greener Wellbeing Economy. The importance of innovation’s role in making Scotland’s businesses, industries, regions, communities and public services more productive has been identified in both our National Strategy for Economic Transformation and our National Innovation Strategy.
I am therefore pleased to see the great work underway within Scottish public procurement and the strides we are taking to promote and encourage innovation within our procurement activities. Actions such as these also support the wider ambitions of this Government including Community Wealth Building, which aims to maximise community and business benefits through procurement, developing good enterprises, Fair Work and shorter supply chains.
I’d like to encourage everyone who plays a role in procurement to take time to familiarise yourselves with the new innovation guidance and developments and consider how you can play your part in promoting and encouraging innovation.”

Adriana Roemmele, Innovation and Improvement Lead, National Services Scotland National Procurement, commented: “It’s great that we now have procurement notices and routes that clearly articulate to the market that we are looking to generate new ideas, solutions and partnerships to tackle challenges, and engage markets which are at a pre-commercial stage of development.”

Given that these developments are new, we would ask that any feedback is passed to the Scottish Procurement team by emailing scottishprocurement@gov.scot. For more information on other actions being taken to support innovation please read Scotland’s National Innovation Strategy.

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

Please email enquiries to scottishprocurement@gov.scot

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Tags: innovation, Scotland Innovates, Scottish Procurement Policy Note, SPPN

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