Buying below the threshold in Scotland: what the rules say

Most public-sector purchases in Scotland are below the regulated procurement thresholds. The rules there are lighter, but the money is still public, and audit still asks how each supplier was chosen.

The thresholds

Under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, a procurement is regulated if its estimated value is £50,000 or more for goods and services, or £2 million or more for works. Regulated procurements carry duties such as advertising on Public Contracts Scotland, publishing an award notice and recording the contract in the contracts register.

A requirement must not be split into smaller lots to bring it under a threshold.

What applies below them

Below the thresholds, your own rules take over: standing orders, financial regulations and any procurement manual your organisation has adopted. These usually set value bands with a minimum number of written quotes, and say who may approve a purchase.

The Scottish Government’s Procurement Journey describes Route 1 for requirements below £50,000 (excluding VAT) that are low risk. It is guidance, and it expects a proportionate, documented process.

Is Quick Quote required?

No. Quick Quote, the low-value quotation tool in Public Contracts Scotland, is available to buyers but its use below £50,000 is not required. The Scottish Government confirmed this in its response to FOI/202600514639. That is one reason Public Contracts Scotland records only about 7% of below-£50,000 spend as awards.

What good evidence looks like

• What was needed, and an estimate of its value before going to market
• Whether a framework already covered it, and if so why it was or was not used
• Which suppliers were asked, and what each one returned
• How the choice was made, and who approved it
• That the supplier’s insurance and any required accreditations were current at award

None of this is hard. The difficulty is doing it consistently across hundreds of budget holders who buy only now and then.

Tenderscape gives every budget holder a short quote route that keeps this evidence for them, and shows them the qualified suppliers they haven’t asked yet. We can rebuild your last annual procurement report to show how that evidence turns into reporting, with no data needed.