Scottish Ministers publish the Annual Report on Procurement Activity in Scotland 2020-21

In line with legislative requirements under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (the "2014 Act"), the Scottish Ministers have this week (19 January 2023) published the Annual Report on Procurement Activity for Scotland for the period 2020-21 (the "report").  

Preparation of the report, which outlines some interesting findings and highlights for the period (a period which was of course heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic), is based primary (although not exclusively) on two main information sources, being: (i) the information obtained from public bodies' annual procurement reports (more on this below); and (ii) data available through the Scottish Procurement Information Hub.  

In respect of that first noted stream of information sources, it is worth recognising that public bodies have a number of general duties under the 2014 Act, one of which relates to the preparation (and publication) of their own annual procurement report.  This duty only arises in respect of public bodies with "significant procurement expenditure" (being expenditure greater than or equal to £5m), and is linked to an additional duty to prepare a "procurement strategy" (again, only required where the public body expects to have significant procurement expenditure).

Below are some of the key findings from the report:

• 5,421 regulated contracts were awarded across the 118 reporting bodies (a rise - both in respect of regulated contracts awarded and reporting bodies - compared to the previous report);
• there was an increase (from 67% to 71%) of reporting bodies providing evidence of how environmental wellbeing and climate change were being addressed though procurement; and  
• almost half of public procurement spend (equating to £3.9bn) was spent with supplier based in the 60% most deprived areas in Scotland (a rise on the previous report).     

You can access the full annual report and all of its findings here:

 https://www.gov.scot/publications/annual-report-procurement-activity-scotland-overview-procurement-activity-2020-21/ 

If you require advice and assistance in respect of public procurement processes and general legislative duties, please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our expert procurement specialists.