The Procurement Journey is intended to support all levels of procurement activities and to help manage the expectations of stakeholders, customers and suppliers alike. It facilitates best practice and consistency across the Scottish public sector.

The Procurement Journey provides one source of guidance and documentation for the Scottish public sector which is updated on a continual basis with any changes in legislation, policy and facilitates best practice and consistency. We would encourage you to use the source documentation in the Procurement Journey for every procurement exercise to ensure you are always using the most recent guidance and templates on an ongoing basis. The Procurement Journey has been developed as an online tool and not a manual however you can print the text from the Journey by using the 'printer friendly' option on each page.

Yes! The Procurement Journey is intended to support all levels of procurement activities and to help manage the expectations of stakeholders, customers and suppliers alike. It facilitates best practice and consistency across the Scottish public sector.

Details of what route to use can be found on the homepage.

If you are unable to estimate the value of a contract that contract will be explicitly made subject to the procurement rules (i.e. Toute 3).

More information can be found in SPPN 1/2023: Public procurement – Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Agreements: SPPN 1/2023 and additional information can be found at What Procurement Route Should I Choose?

The Procurement Journey is not a substitute for legal and professional advice. You must consult with relevant procurement, legal and technical staff wherever appropriate. You should ensure, when working with this guidance that you identify and comply with any relevant internal organisation guidelines, policies or procedures.

The Scottish Government has issued separate guidance on the procurement of construction works. 

Yes. In the case of any contract with a value above the thresholds, the main reasons for not lotting the contract must be stated in the procurement documents or in the procurement report.   A procurement report is required for each contract or framework agreement, and should be completed at the end of a procurement process.

We would advise that it is best practice for the main reasons to be detailed in the Contract Notice under Section II.2.4 Description of the procurement.  

The Contract Notice must be transparent about the basis on which you will be applying the selection and award criteria.

If you are using a two-stage procedure, you can put all the information on selection scoring and weighting in Section II.2.9 (Shortlisting) of the Contract Notice. If you are using an open procedure, the Shortlisting box cannot be used so please put your information on selection criteria under VI.3 Additional Information.

It is regarded as best practice to also include your award criteria and your scoring methodology in Section VI.3 of the Contract Notice Additional Information, and in the case of a two stage process this information is mandatory.