March 2010
Sustainable Procurement: Sustainability is at the heart of the Scottish Government's purpose of increased sustainable economic growth - and now it is at the heart of the Government's approach to procurement. The Scottish Sustainable Procurement Action Plan has been published, setting out how the Scottish Government, and subsequently Procurement Scotland, can lead the way in sustainable procurement. It aims to help organisations across the public sector deliver more sustainable outcomes to their procurement activity, across the three strands of:
Social - eg supporting the Third Sector, equalities and fair trade
Economic - eg supporting Scottish business, particularly SMEs
Environmental - including issues such as waste avoidance, recycling, energy efficiency and supporting action on climate change
Please review the Scottish Governments News release on Scottish Sustainable Procurement and Action Plan.
February 2010
Oracle Events - ULA Open Day: Oracle and the Scottish Government invite all organisations participating in the Scottish Government ULA to a technology day in Oracle's Edinburgh office on Friday 19th February. Review the IT Software - Oracle webpage to find out more...
January 2010
Procurement Scotland wishes all their staff, partners and stakeholders a prosperous new year. Following on from a successful 2009 we are continuing to forge ahead across all our national (category A) portfolios. Please review the Current and Future National Contracts & Strategies webpage, and the corresponding portfolio and commodity web pages to find out what's in the pipeline, for instance, coming soon in 2010:
- Natural Gas : The contract was awarded in December 2009 to TOTAL Gas & Power Ltd, with a go-live in April 2010. Buying organisations are encouraged to sign-up now to maximise this purchasing opportunity.
- Courier Services : With the ITT (Invitation to Tender) return date of 18th January 2010, we anticipate that the national contract will be awarded in March, with go-live in May 2010.
- IT Hardware Disposal Guidance : Following consultation with the IT Hardware National Category Forum and with SEPA (Scottish Environmental protection Agency), Procurement Scotland will shortly publish an interactive decision tree style guide for use by public sector bodies tasked with disposal of their organisation's redundant IT hardware.
- Professional Services : With the ITT returns now being assessed, we anticipate that a national framework contract will be in place for 'Temporary & Interim Staff' in March 2010, and for 'Business Management Consultancy' in April 2010.
Procurement Scotland, since our launch in March 2008, has delivered savings of approximately £38 million.