The Scottish public sector spends more than £14.5 billion a year buying goods, services and works.

We aim to ensure that this significant investment is spent in a way that can deliver the most benefit to society.

Actions

We provide procurement tools, support and guidance:

And we are improving procurement systems and processes by:

We are helping to achieve wider social benefits from public procurement through:

Background

We are responsible for developing public procurement policy and legislation in Scotland, as well as setting up contracts and framework agreements for ourselves and the wider public sector.

There has been a substantial programme of reform to improve public sector procurement, following a 2006 review by John McClelland CBE.

We set out progress in Public Procurement Reform Programme 2006 to 2016: achievements and impact.

Details of work to deliver continuous improvement in procurement in Scotland is captured and measured in workplans, last reviewed in 2019.

Our procurement strategy, refreshed annually, sets out how we plan to carry out our procurements for each financial year.

We published the Public Procurement Strategy in April 2023. This has been developed by a cross-sector work stream made up of procurement professionals, and provides a high-level vision, roadmap and strategic objectives against which public bodies can align to.

Archive

You can view procurement content prior to 2018 on the gov.scot archive.

Bills and legislation

Legislation governs how Scottish public bodies, including the Scottish Government, buy their goods, services and works.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 built on the work achieved in the reform of public procurement, providing direction to public bodies and setting out procurement responsibilities and accountabilities.

Contact

Back to top