There is potential for public procurement projects to positively impact on various sectors of the business community, through direct access as contractors or as subcontractors.
A contracting authority should set its approach to facilitating access to contracts and to use community benefits in its procurement strategy. This should then be reflected in the structure of the individual procurement projects.
There are a number of mechanisms available facilitating access to contracts.
All regulated procurements must be advertised on the PCS portal; where a market exists, contracts may be reserved for supported businesses; community benefit requirements, including access to sub-contacting opportunities must be considered for all regulated contracts of £4 million and above) and division of contracts into lots must be considered for all contracts subject to the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.
Contract suitability and market capacity to meet a specific requirement need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Preliminary market consultation is crucial to be able to determine whether the market is capable of delivering a specific requirement.
