Public Procurement and Property

Scottish Public Sector Survey of Suppliers 2024

September 1, 2025 by Scottish Procurement No Comments | Category Procurement news, Scottish Procurement, suppliers

Overview of survey

Public procurement plays a vital role in Scotland, shaping the way goods, services and works are delivered across the public sector. In late 2024, we carried out a survey to better understand how suppliers experience the public procurement process.

We have published the Public Procurement Survey of Suppliers report summarising the findings on our website.

Who took part

A total of 344 suppliers took part in the survey, and the findings are based on their responses. The survey attracted a wide range of suppliers, the majority being Small to Medium Enterprises (87% of respondents). All major business sectors were represented, with the highest number of responses coming from businesses which class their work as professional, scientific and technical activities, including social and scientific research.

Key themes

The survey aimed to help us better understand the Scottish public procurement process from the perspective of suppliers and covered respondents:

• bidding patterns
• feedback received on their bids
• the journey for suppliers
• the sustainable procurement duty
• challenges and support for bidders
• consortium bids
• sub-contracting
• training and capacity building
• perceptions of public procurement in Scotland

Next steps

We will now engage with partners and stakeholders to further explore the  findings in more detail and determine what actions can be taken to improve supplier experiences.

This work will play an important role in ensuring that procurement in Scotland continues to be transparent, inclusive and impactful – helping both suppliers and the wider public sector to achieve more.

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: Public procurement, Scottish Procurement, SMEs

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