FOI/202600514639 · FOI · released
Public sector procurement spend: FOI release
Information requested
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 regarding national procurement spend data for the 2024/25 financial year.
To minimize the cost of this request, I am specifically requesting a data extract from the Scottish Procurement Information Hub (or equivalent internal spend-analysis tool) for the 2024/25 period.
Please provide:
1. Below-Threshold Volume: The total aggregate value of all procurement spend across the Scottish public sector that was categorized as "non-regulated" (i.e., under the £50,000 threshold for goods and services).
2. Quick Quote Usage: The total value of the "below-threshold" spend that was awarded specifically through Quick Quotes on Public Contracts Scotland.
3. Local SME Spend: A breakdown of the total value spent with SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) where the supplier's registered address is within the same local authority area as the awarding body.
I would prefer this information in an Excel or CSV format.
Response
1. We have completed a search of the Procurement Information Hub for all procurement spend across the public sector that was “non-regulated” spend (under £50,000). The figures are shown in the attached document. This figure is for all 108 public bodies that use the Procurement Information Hub and includes spend with electronic Purchasing Cards (ePC).
2. We have completed a search of Public Contract Scotland (PCS) for awards “below-threshold” value. The value of all the awards “below-threshold” is shown in the attached document. As per the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, contracts with a value of below £50,000.00 are not required to use PCS or the Quick Quote function within.
Unregulated procurements may be conducted locally and held by each public body; as a result, the data we have shared reflects only the information currently available to us in PCS.
3. Using the Procurement Information Hub, we have provided a breakdown of the total value spent with SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) where the supplier's registered address is within the same local authority area as the awarding body. This spend is from the 108 public bodies currently registered as a user of the solution and is broken down by each Scottish local authority area.
Please note that there will be more public bodies with a registered post code in some areas. This will be represented in the data with a higher supplier spend in these areas (e.g. City of Edinburgh Council, Glasgow City Council, etc).
Please note:
Information held on the Scottish Procurement Information Hub is based on the Accounts Payable data from 108 (24/25) participating Scottish public sector bodies. The accounts payable data is enhanced from publicly available sources to classify suppliers by size, location, and area of business. Data is revalidated regularly and may be subject to change as additional information about suppliers is gained. It is however, correct at the date of retrieval. (28/04/2026). Supplier size is based only on number of employees where known. An SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) is defined as a supplier with less than 250 employees. Geographical spend is based on known postcodes. The postcode is obtained from a supplier’s invoice address. Regions and local authority boundaries are determined by areas specified by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The data is owned by each individual Scottish public sector body, and as such it is their responsibility to manage the upload of this data to the Procurement Information Hub.
I would also like to draw your attention to our regular published spend for transactions over £500 for ePCs: Government spend over £500: monthly reports - gov.scot and also our monthly and annual reports of Scottish Government spend over £25,000 Government spend over £25,000: monthly and annual reports - gov.scot.
We also publish annual Procuremen spend in Scotland. This includes geographical spend based on supplier and public bodies registered addresses and their postal codes. The most recently published data can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/spend-analysis-2022-2023/pages/1/.
You may find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s ‘Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs’ on the following website: http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/YourRights/Tipsforrequesters.aspx.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.