Established under The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 public bodies must implement their sustainable procurement duty and embed climate change in procurement strategies and reporting. Statutory Guidance on this act covering procurement strategies and annual reports, the sustainable procurement duty, community benefit, tenders and the awarding of contracts was updated in May 2022 by the Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate.
Sustainable Procurement Duty
The sustainable procurement duty requires publicly funded bodies, before purchasing, to consider how they can improve the economic, social, and environmental well-being of their constituency and act in a way to enable the following:
- Improving economic, social, and environmental wellbeing and reducing inequality in the area
- Facilitating the involvement of small and medium enterprises, third sector bodies and supported businesses
- Promoting innovation
Fair Work First (the Scottish Government’s policy for driving high quality and fair work across the labour market) and community benefits can be viewed as a subset of the sustainable procurement duty.
Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Reporting
The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Order 2015 mandates annual compliance reporting with section 44 Climate Change Duties introduced by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.
The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2020 introduced a further requirement to report on their procurement policies and how the body will align its spending plans and use of resources to contribute to delivering its emission reduction targets.
Procurement Strategy and Annual Procurement Reports
The mandatory legislative reporting requirements of public bodies are stated in sections 15 and 18 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 includes the obligation to develop and review a procurement strategy and to publish a procurement report annually. This report should summarise a public body’s procurement activity and assess how their spending plans and use of resources are aligned with their procurement strategy and delivering emissions reduction targets.
Annual Report on Procurement in Scotland
Section 21 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 states that Scottish Ministers must prepare the annual report on procurement in Scotland report based on the information contained in the published annual reports from individual public bodies. See here the latest Annual Report on Procurement Activity in Scotland 2020/21 (January 2023).
Life Cycle Costing
Section 68 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 relates to life cycle costing (LCC), detailing which costs must be covered in the life cycle of a product, this includes environmental externalities. It specifies the requirements an LCC calculator must meet and how the contracting authority should communicate LCC in procurement documents.