Scottish Procurement Scottish Procurement Policy Note SPPN 3/2013 Date 23 October 2013 Delivering community benefits in public procurement - Public Contracts Scotland Purpose 1. This note is to promote guidance on: the use of the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) advertising portal to achieve and monitor community benefits, and increasing access to subcontracting opportunities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Social Enterprises. Background 2. One of the established community benefits available to public bodies is that they can further small business and social enterprise development. Principally, through the facility to insist that subcontracting opportunities are made more accessible and transparent through use of prescribed systems. 3. The Community Benefits in Procurement Monitoring Framework 1 identified outputs that contribute to a range of national outcomes. In particular We live in a Scotland that is the most attractive place for doing business in Europe. Procurement outputs include: 1 Monitoring Community Benefits in Procurement SPPN 3/2013 Page 1 of 6
number and value of sub contracts awarded to SMEs and third sector organisations, and number of sub-contracting opportunities publicly advertised 4. Two pilot projects used PCS to advertise subcontract opportunities for the Forth Replacement Crossing, and the Scottish Crime Campus. To date these have resulted in the public advertisement of over 130 subcontracting opportunities. 5. The pilots have clearly demonstrated that the outputs described in the monitoring framework can be delivered and recorded through PCS. 6. Following these successful pilots, functionality has been developed to support the tracking of both community benefits clauses generally, and sub-contract advertising specifically. When used, this functionality will assist in the delivery of specific community benefits policy objectives. The sub-contract functionality will go live on PCS on Wednesday 23 October; the community benefits clause will go live in December final date will be notified separately. A Guidance Note is included in Annex A describing the functionality available on PCS. 7. This note is not a comprehensive guide to the use of community benefits and subcontract advertising; it is intended to provide an overview of how to advertise such opportunities. (In-line with existing community benefits in procurement policy, those considering including such clauses in contracts must ensure that this is relevant and proportionate to the subject matter of the contracts.) Action required 8. Public bodies should utilise the new functionality available within the PCS portal to include, where appropriate, a requirement for primary contactors awarded major works public works i.e. above OJEU threshold contracts to: 8.1 advertise all subcontract opportunities on the PCS portal (where the primary contractor does not already have an identified supply chain) SPPN 3/2013 Page 2 of 6
8.2 deliver any further community benefits required by the contracting authority as outlined within the contract notice and subsequently detailed in the contract documents Dissemination 9. Please bring this SPPN to the attention of all relevant staff within your field of responsibility to whom this note may be of interest. Enquiries 10. Any enquiries in relation to this guidance should be addressed to Scottish Procurement: Scottishprocurement@scotland.gsi.gov.uk Scottish Procurement The Scottish Government 2nd Floor, Europa Building 450 Argyle Street Glasgow G2 8LG SPPN 3/2013 Page 3 of 6
Guidance Note Annex A Enhancements to the functionality of Public Contracts Scotland to promote the inclusion of sub-contracting and community benefits clauses in major works contracts Subcontract clause When creating an OJEU contract notice for a Works contract a new question will be asked of the buyer, as per the screenshot below. The new question asks the buyer if a subcontract clause should be included in the contract notice. If included, the clause requires primary contractors that do not already have an identified supply chain to advertise any subsequent subcontracting opportunities on the Public Contracts Scotland website. SPPN 3/2013 Page 4 of 6
The default answer will be no. If the buyer chooses not to change this to yes they are asked to provide a reason why they are not including a sub-contract clause. The reason given is not published in the notice but a report is made available in the site reporter on any works OJEU contract notices where the buyer has opted not to include a sub-contract clause which will include the reason provided. When the question is answered yes the below standard clause will appear in the body of the notice under additional information : The contractor shall ensure that all contracts with sub-contractors and suppliers which the contractor intends to procure following the commencement date, and which the contractor has not, before the date of this contract, already planned to award to a particular subcontractor or supplier, are advertised through the Public Contracts Scotland procurement portal (www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk) and awarded following a fair, open, transparent and competitive process proportionate to the nature and value of the contract. Community Benefits Clause A new question will be asked within the templates for Works Contract Notices at OJEU level. The buyer must answer whether a Community Benefits Clause (CBC) applies to the contract. The question will have a default answer of no. Whichever answer the buyer selects they are required to provide more information so there is no concern that the buyer may inadvertently insert a CBC into their contract notice. Inserting a Community Benefits Clause If they answer Yes they are required to enter a description of the CBC(s) which apply. SPPN 3/2013 Page 5 of 6
This information is appended to a standard clause which is then inserted into the Additional Information section of the published notice. Not inserting a Community Benefits Clause If the buyer chooses to answer no they are required to provide a reason for not including a Community Benefits Clause. These details will not be published but will be made available to the Scottish Government to help them assess the impact and value of this approach. SPPN 3/2013 Page 6 of 6