Current status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 22 February 2013
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that its procurement contracts safeguard jobs in Scotland.
The Scottish Government uses community benefit clauses in public procurement contracts to achieve our national outcome of more and better employment opportunities for people in Scotland.
Since the Scottish Government published guidance on Community Benefits in Procurement in 2008, commitments by the Scottish public sector to employ over 3,500 new workers via targeted recruitment and training opportunities has been achieved.
We intend to use the forthcoming Procurement Reform Bill to introduce a statutory requirement that public sector bodies include community benefit clauses in all new major public contracts and that those in receipt of major public contracts publish their commitments and target updates on training, apprenticeships and performance.