Chamber and committees

I would be speaking beyond my portfolio responsibilities if I strayed into the territory of food regulation and its specifics. There will be sound reasons for those particular standards.

What is important from a procurement perspective is that we continue to develop a system that is not only open and transparent but that allows opportunities for continued engagement with suppliers. We look at the other broader levers that we have to support suppliers in meeting the requirements and demands of public sector procurers.

We look forward to the proposed community wealth building legislation, on which we have engaged closely with the FSB, increasing opportunities for local suppliers and SMEs. That will be crucial to the success of our approach.

There is a fundamental point about knowing what need the procurement is seeking to address. With regard to commissioning, we must ensure through pre-market engagement with suppliers that they have a clear understanding of the need and demand that is to be met. On the point about the officers who are involved in the administrative process of drafting and decision making, that will be for the individual contracting bodies, but they must comply with the legislative requirements. They have to be in a position to demonstrate how they are doing that. I know that those points have been raised in previous sessions, but there is a fundamental point about having a clear understanding of the need and demand and about working with suppliers to find the most effective way of addressing that.

The first point is implicit in what Mr Stewart stated and echoes the points that were made earlier about East Ayrshire. That example demonstrates what is possible under the existing legislative framework, which permits the kind of activity that he has described.

On the question of why other public bodies and other contracting authorities do not take a similar approach, that will, ultimately, reflect the decisions that they have taken. As I touched on earlier, local authorities are, of course, democratically accountable to their electorate.

I will not re-rehearse the points that have been made about the various examples of facilitating and sharing best practice—whether in person or online—but, with regard to how we can further support public bodies to share best practice beyond what we have already set out, I will, of course, carefully consider the committee’s views and reflections on the matter. This is a statement of the obvious, but the key point is that the examples of good practice that have been identified are occurring under the existing framework, so they demonstrate what is possible.

I do not know whether Graeme Cook has any reflections on the broader point about sharing best practice and whether he can unpack why some authorities will take one approach while others might not choose to take the same approach.

Good morning. Thank you very much for the invitation to appear before you this morning.

It seems to be clear that there is agreement on the importance of public procurement in Scotland and the role that public procurement plays in delivering sustainable economic growth, as well as on the big steps that have already been taken to improve the way in which the public sector buys goods, works and services.

The 2014 act was intended to be powerful and proportionate and to place sustainability and wellbeing at the heart of procurement activity. It places on public bodies a small number of general duties and some specific measures that are aimed at promoting good, transparent and consistent practice. It has led to a range of measures to make procurement opportunities more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises, third sector bodies and supported businesses. Those include advertising opportunities through Public Contracts Scotland, dividing contracts into lots, subcontracting opportunities through the supply chain and supplier development activities.

We deliberately built on the legislative framework and developed business-friendly and easy-to-access training, guidance and support for businesses of all sizes. The results are demonstrated through the Scottish ministers’ “Annual Report on Procurement Activity in Scotland”, which we published this week. For example, 56 per cent of the £16 billion of Scottish public sector procurement spend went to Scottish businesses and 55 per cent went to Scottish SMEs, which provided £7.5 billion to Scottish gross domestic product along with 130,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

We actively undertake research and engagement and seek feedback from industry, the public sector, third sector and supported businesses to test and inform our approach. We do that through surveys, commissioning research, our public supply group, industry representation, and hosting supplier round tables. The findings from that research underpin Scotland’s public procurement strategy, which was developed across the sectors and with industry, and was published in April last year and is a first in providing a high-level vision for Scottish public procurement.

It was reassuring to hear those who gave evidence to the committee talk in favourable terms about the changes that have been introduced by the legislation. The 2014 act is critical in underpinning an approach to public procurement that helps to create opportunity, boost inclusive and sustainable economic wellbeing, tackle inequalities and create real social impact.

The journey, however, is not complete. We will always look at what more we can do to maximise the impact of public procurement in Scotland. With that in mind, I welcome the committee’s post-legislative review of the 2014 act.

I am more than happy to do that. I recognise that that is one of a number of areas in which there will always be tensions, because tensions always exist in procurement. With your permission, convener, I will bring in Nikki Archer to say a few words.

I appreciate the question and want to record my thanks to the SDP for its outstanding work, which I think we all recognise.

A number of activities are taking place. First, we are one of a number of partners that fund SDP, which runs a range of activities including training, the provision of guidance and local and regional “meet the buyer” events. The Government also works with some of the national events that create opportunities for suppliers to engage directly with buyers. Moreover, there is the range of guidance that has already been touched on in earlier questions and which we provide via the Public Contracts Scotland website, where you will find links to the various forms of support. Therefore, there is the online activity, and there is also our work to support SDP.

On the broader issue of our practice with regard to engagement, Graeme Cook might have something to add.

That work is at a very early stage and we are still scoping things out. As the committee will have heard from previous witnesses, we have started the process of engagement, but the work at the moment is very much about building the evidence base. Instead of the Government presupposing what PCS should look like, it is looking to understand more fully the feedback and the particular issues that have been raised, which Mr Fraser has referred to.

That process of engagement will help to inform our work in this space. As we move forward, I will, of course, be more than happy to keep the committee up to date.

Nikki, do you want to add anything?

That comes back to the issue of what is in the legislation and how that has been implemented. The committee will be familiar with the requirements under the legislation around regulated procurement, the provision of feedback and opportunities for further engagement. The committee will be aware from its evidence taking that there are many buyers who are more than keen to engage with suppliers who are unsuccessful, because such feedback is important in allowing suppliers not only to stay engaged with the public procurement system but to enhance their capacity and ability, and their opportunities, to win contracts in the future.

On the issue of implementation and how we seek to ensure that the requirements of the act are effectively carried forward, I will ask Graeme Cook to come in.

As part of the community wealth building legislation process, in the consultation on that, as well as asking a specific question about the proposed duties, we asked for any feedback across the five pillars of community wealth building. We received specific feedback that suggested that changes should be made to the thresholds in the procurement legislation. At the moment, I am not in a position to say what the Government’s response to that is. We are still giving the matter detailed consideration, but it was raised as part of that process.