The annual procurement report: what the Act asks for

Every summer, procurement teams across Scotland spend weeks putting together the annual procurement report. The requirement is short, but gathering the evidence is not. This is what the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 actually asks for.

Who has to publish one

Section 15 of the Act requires a contracting authority to have a procurement strategy if it expects its regulated procurement spend in a financial year to be £5 million or more. Section 18 then says that any authority required to prepare or revise a strategy must prepare an annual procurement report on its regulated procurement activities “as soon as reasonably practicable” after the end of that financial year.

Regulated procurements are those at or above £50,000 for goods and services, or £2 million for works.

What the report must contain

Section 18(2) lists seven items:

• (a) a summary of the regulated procurements completed during the year
• (b) a review of whether those procurements complied with your procurement strategy
• (c) where any did not comply, how you intend to make sure future ones do
• (d) a summary of community benefit requirements imposed as part of a regulated procurement that were fulfilled during the year
• (e) a summary of steps taken to involve supported businesses in regulated procurements
• (f) a summary of the regulated procurements you expect to start in the next two financial years
• (g) any other information Scottish Ministers specify by order

Section 18(3) sets when a procurement counts as completed for item (a): when the award notice is published, or when the procurement otherwise comes to an end.

Publishing it

Section 19 requires you to publish the report on the internet, and in any other way you consider appropriate, and to tell Scottish Ministers that you have done so.

Why it takes so long

Item (a) can be read from your Public Contracts Scotland award notices. The rest usually cannot. Compliance with the strategy, community benefits actually delivered and supported business activity tend to live in spreadsheets, inboxes and the memories of contract owners. The forward plan in item (f) depends on a contracts register that is up to date.

The work is in the evidence, not the writing. If the evidence is recorded as each procurement happens, the report becomes a matter of checking and adding commentary.

Making next year easier

• Record community benefits at award, and record delivery as it happens, not in May.
• Keep the contracts register current, with end dates and extension options, so the two-year forward plan comes straight from it.
• Note the reason whenever a procurement departs from the strategy, at the time.
• Match your PCS award notices to your contracts during the year, not after it.

Tenderscape drafts each section of the report from your record and your PCS notices. If you would like to see it, we can rebuild last year’s report from your own published data.