[Falkirk, 04.09.2025] Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank has welcomed the UK Labour Government’s offer to rewrite Scotland’s outdated procurement rules, saying the changes will boost Scottish jobs after years of SNP inaction.
Cabinet Office Minister Georgia Gould has written to SNP ministers offering to extend the Procurement (Economic Security) Bill to Scotland. While procurement is devolved to Holyrood, since the election last year the Labour Government has legislated in a number of devolved areas with Scottish Government agreement in order to deliver faster change — including regulation around the sale of vapes, legislation to keep ScotRail in public hands, and stronger rights for private sector renters.
Mr Stainbank said the SNP’s failure to update procurement legislation for over a decade has meant Scotland has missed out on vital opportunities for jobs, with taxpayer-funded contracts going overseas instead of supporting Scottish industry.
Mr Stainbank said:
“Procurement rules are one of the most powerful tools we have to support local jobs and industry — yet the SNP has failed to update them since 2014. That failure has meant ferries bought from Poland and Turkey, steel and buses imported from China, and Scottish workers losing out.
“The Labour Government is extending the hand of friendship to Edinburgh to rewrite these rules so that public contracts genuinely benefit Scottish communities. This is about making sure money spent by Scottish taxpayers helps Scottish workers, small businesses, and social enterprises.
“The SNP shouldn’t sit on their constitutional conflict resting pulse with us to deliver these reforms as soon as possible, because we cannot afford another decade of missed opportunities.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The last time Holyrood passed a Procurement Bill was 2014: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/record-view-msps-who-voted-3537836
The Labour Government have consulted on the measures below and will bring forward a full package in the coming months:
Supporting small businesses and social enterprises
- Amending the Procurement Act 2023 to mandate that large contracting authorities with procurement spend over £100m p.a (which would include large councils, NHS Trusts, etc.) to publish their own 3-year target for direct spend with SMEs and VCSEs and report against it annually.
- Extending the requirements of section 70 of the Act to ensure that information on all payments made under public contracts is published, effectively removing the current £30,000 threshold, and extending coverage of section 70 to include payments covered by notifiable below-threshold contracts.
Prompt Payment
- Amending the Procurement Act 2023 to require contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from bidding for major contracts (+£5m per annum) if they cannot demonstrate they pay their invoices within an average of 60 days. If contracting authorities do not exclude suppliers they will be required to provide an explanation.
People-focused services
- Clarifying in primary legislation where it may be appropriate to award contracts for certain services delivered to vulnerable citizens without a full competitive procedure, so that decisions can be driven by the needs of the individuals and vulnerable groups.
Supporting local jobs and skills
- Requiring contracting authorities to set at least one award criteria in major procurements (+£5m) which relates to the quality of the supplier’s contribution to jobs, opportunities or skills. Contracting authorities would need to apply a minimum weighting of 10% of the scores available, to social value award criteria.
- Requiring contracting authorities to set at least one social value KPI relating to jobs, opportunities or skills in major contracts (+£5m) and report on delivery performance against this KPI in the contract performance notice.
- Requiring contracting authorities to use standard social value criteria and metrics selected from a streamlined list (to be co-designed with the public sector and suppliers) in their procurement of public contracts.
- Allowing contracting authorities to specify the area in which the social value is to be delivered by choosing between the location of a contracting authority’s area of responsibility, the location where the contract will be performed, or the location where the supplier is based.
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