Scottish Government

2. Where to find contract opportunities

Scottish contracts

Public Contracts Scotland³ represents a free and easy way to access details of all public sector contract opportunities in Scotland.

The portal:

• enables suppliers to gain access to a wide range of contract opportunities in Scotland free of charge; and
• provides a source of suppliers for lower value contracts.

The portal has strong support from Ministers and from the business community. It is available for use by contracting authorities and suppliers now. Additionally, there is a plan to roll-out the portal to all major contracting authorities in Scotland by the end of 2009.

UK contracts

Information on other UK public procurement contract opportunities can be found through:

• the Supplier Route to Government Portal⁶ that advertises and provides limited free access to below EC threshold contracts, further services are available on a subscription basis.
• the Central Procurement Directorate⁷ in Northern Ireland provides information and public contract opportunities for the public sector in Northern Ireland.
• Sell2Wales⁸ provides information on public contract opportunities in Wales.
• Constructionline⁹ which is the UK's register of national construction and construction-related suppliers, owned and endorsed by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. For registration on Constructionline there is a sliding scale of charges dependent on company size and turnover.

European contracts

Your first point of contact will be Enterprise Europe Scotland. ¹⁰ They will help you understand the requirements of finding and tendering for public sector contracts on a Europe-wide basis. Enterprise Europe Scotland is part of the Enterprise Europe Network; ¹¹ it operates in both the Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands areas, and is dedicated to helping businesses at a European level. To contact them email enterprise.europe@scotent.co.uk or call 0141 228 2797.

Suppliers can access almost all public-sector contract opportunities worth more than the value set in the EU procurement directives in the daily supplement¹² to the Official Journal of the European Union ( OJEU). Some public bodies have made it their policy to advertise more widely in the OJEU than is legally required.

Companies taking part in procurement procedures in other EU states can access support from the European Public Procurement Network¹³ ( PPN), a co-operative network of public procurement experts and officials.

Subcontracting opportunities

Many of the highest-value government contracts go to large companies, but smaller or newer companies may become engaged in these contracts through sub-contracting, partnering/consortia or consultancy work.

Public-sector organisations may provide information about their main contractors, or you might identify and contact a supplier who has been short-listed for or won a major contract through the Public Contracts Scotland. ³