PCS records 7% of spend below £50,000. Here is how we know.

£1.02bn was spent below £50,000 in 2024/25. Public Contracts Scotland records only about 7% of below-£50,000 spend as awards. This is where those figures come from and how to read them.

The source

The figures come from the Scottish Government’s response to a Freedom of Information request from Tenderscape, answered on 12/05/2026 and published as FOI/202600514639 on 14/07/2026. Spend comes from the Procurement Information Hub, which holds accounts-payable data from 108 public bodies, for 2024/25, including purchasing cards. Awards come from a search of Public Contracts Scotland for below-threshold awards.

The numbers

• Total spend below £50,000: £1.02 billion
• Below-£50,000 awards recorded in Public Contracts Scotland: £71.1 million, about 7%
• Not recorded as a PCS award: about £950 million, about 93%

What it shows

Most below-threshold money is spent without a record in the national system. The response doesn’t say which routes the rest went through. It is likely to include purchasing cards, purchase orders and framework call-offs.

What it does not show

• It does not show that any purchase was non-compliant. Below £50,000, public bodies don’t have to use PCS or Quick Quote, and local quote processes outside PCS can be entirely proper.
• Spend data and award values are measured differently, so the comparison is indicative, not exact.
• Figures are rounded.

The point is not that 93% was bought badly. It is that for most of this money, the evidence of how the supplier was chosen is held locally, in many different forms, if it is held at all.

Your own figure will differ. We can start with your published annual procurement report, which needs no data. If a closer look would help, a Health Check works from an agreed sample of your finance data, under terms agreed in writing.