Background and Requirement
National Procurement and Sustainability
National Procurement is the Centre of Procurement Expertise for the NHS Scotland (NHSS), providing expert advice and support to Health Boards (HBs) on procurement matters. National Procurement manages over £1.44 billion annually in national contracts, for goods and services used within our hospitals and health services, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, waste services, food and specialist professional services.
In support of the NHS Scotland commitment to becoming a net-zero Healthcare Service by 2040 and supply chain achieving net-zero emissions by 2045, National Procurement frameworks and commodity strategies are evolving to include sustainability considerations. Harnessing these opportunities drives progression towards targets through collaborative and contractual engagement with suppliers. This strategic approach conveys clear commitment to the wider organisation, suppliers, industry, and the public, highlighting its responsibility in tackling global climate change.
Since April 2025, the National Procurement Governance and Sustainability Team has offered support to selected National Frameworks to maximise sustainability considerations by including and supporting evaluation of bespoke sustainability criteria.
This case study
This case study explores the strategic planning and analysis that has resulted in the focus on selected frameworks, and ongoing process and governance.
The intended audience for this case study comprises:
- Senior NHSS stakeholders including service managers;
- Medical directors & clinicians;
- Climate and Sustainability specialists;
- Procurement practitioners in public bodies
Developing the sustainable procurement focus
Trialled approach – a ‘Model Question’.
National Procurement sought to enhance the inclusion of sustainability within frameworks and commodity strategies:
- To ensure, where relevant, alignment with UK Healthcare partners, to help ensure a clear and consistent message to suppliers, industry and relevant stakeholders.
- To support targets such as the transition to Net Zero.
- To help procurement teams.
As a result, in 2023-2024, to ensure sustainability consideration in tenders for consumable product commodity frameworks, the inclusion of a ‘Model Question’ was trialled in selected frameworks, with a set of environmental questions and guidance for their evaluation. The question for bidders focused on mitigation of climate impacts throughout the relevant product life cycle.
Feedback and review
A series of engagement sessions were held internally and externally (facilitated by industry groups) ahead of the trial and feedback was sought post-trial.
Following evaluation of this trial, the decision was taken not to roll out the Model question further. The question was considered too generic as it limited inclusion of specific risks, making it hard to score, and it also stifled innovation as it didn’t fit well in the scoring methodology.
Instead, in order to ensure continual improvement in sustainability, a range of opportunities have been routinely applied:
- in particular, the need to apply a commodity specific approach, which suppliers have stated a preference for, allowing for relevant and proportionate questions to be asked around known environmental risks specific to those products and with support for both buyers and bidders to build confidence in this approach
- use of the national sustainable procurement tools and supporting guidance to identify and assess the social and environmental impacts of procurements, and to embed relevant and proportionate sustainability requirements in the development of contracts
- supplier selection process – inclusion of Single Procurement Document (SPD) 4C7 to request Carbon Reduction Plans where relevant and proportionate
- supplementary information collation through Evergreen (NHS England’s sustainable supplier assessment), and the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT), where relevant
- requirements for suppliers to operate to international environmental standard ISO14001 or equivalent and/or undertake life cycle carbon assessments of products applied only where this is appropriate to the requirement and market capability, enabling participation for SMEs and third sector organisations, while recognising the need over time to better understand the carbon impact of products supplied in a consistent, internationally recognised, manner
This renewed focus on sustainability, reflected in a strategic planning approach, will help ensure a balanced and structured approach to consideration of all relevant environmental and social risks and opportunities.
Strategic sustainable procurement prioritisation
The development of this strategic approach has involved:
- a balanced assessment of 75 forthcoming frameworks and their relevant environmental and socio-economic risks and opportunities, using the Sustainable Procurement Prioritisation Methodology, based on the National Procurement Workplan for 2025/6 to 2027/8
- frameworks assessed included NP68625 Orthopaedic Trauma & Extremity Implants, NP56425 Supply of Healthcare Beds & Mattresses, NP59725 Custom Theatre Packs and Speciality Packs & Drapes together with others from food, textiles, healthcare services, various consumables, devices and other products
- this resulted in a number of food, textiles, furniture, vaccine management and various consumable and product frameworks identified as initial priorities
- this assessment considered the environmental and socio-economic risks and opportunities, the scope to improve these within the frameworks and the extent to which National Procurement could reasonably influence market change. Additional factors were also considered to ensure a focus on appropriate frameworks
- the timings of the frameworks, to reflect those that could be realistically influenced while accounting for spread to ensure effective support availability
- the capacity and existing knowledge of strategic sourcing and procurement colleagues
- compliance with emerging legislative changes and complementing other national sustainability initiatives
- further research to fill gaps in knowledge identified during the initial assessment
- the feasibility of support time available from Subject Matter Experts
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