Public procurement - taking account of climate and circular economy considerations: SPPN 3/2022 reflects additional sources of help and support which have been developed to enable public procurement authorities to use procurement to address the climate emergency. It clarifies expectations with respect to climate and circular economy considerations. It aligns climate change reporting duties with procurement policy and legislation which requires public bodies to consider and act on opportunities to improve social and environmental wellbeing. It highlights that public bodies should use their public procurement spend to support climate and circular economy ambitions, signposting sources of support to embed this policy in practice.
The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (the Act) places a sustainable procurement duty on a contracting authority before they buy anything, to think about how they can – though their procurements - improve the social, environmental and economic wellbeing in Scotland, with a particular focus on reducing inequality, and act in a way to secure this. For example through the appropriate use of the sustainability test and its associated tool; the prioritisation methodology, and the application of relevant and proportionate contract requirements.
The Act also requires obligated organisations to develop a corporate procurement strategy and report against its delivery at the end of each year, emphasising the importance of monitoring and reporting delivery of intended sustainable outcomes.
The public procurement regulations allow a contracting authority to exclude companies from tendering for public contracts for not meeting certain conditions. This includes breach of any obligations in environmental, social or labour law; and select the most suitable bidders based on technical ability and previous experience in relation to the subject matter of the contract. This is done through the Single Procurement Document (SPD).
The public procurement regulations also permit contracting authorities to ask for tenderers to be registered under a certain label scheme - as long as the circumstances outlined in Specification apply.
