Chamber and committees

You said that the system is fairly easy to use from the buyer’s side; according to the customer satisfaction survey, it is moderately easy to very easy to use for the majority of, although not all, suppliers. However, there is an issue for microbusinesses, because they lack capacity. Lynette Robertson has talked about “meet the buyers” events, supplier development programmes and all the rest of it, but is there enough emphasis on how you support microbusinesses to use the public procurement system, or do you feel that that is not your role?

Craig Fergusson talked earlier about perceived barriers. Is the website one of those perceived barriers for small businesses?

Yes.

You made a point about a small business being one of 10 companies bidding for a contract and being put off because it does not win. Is feedback given to suppliers that fail to get a contract, as part of a learning process to help them to improve their bids?

One of the suggestions that we heard last week was that commissioners could be allowed to search by type of organisation as a way of improving their social impact. Would you all find that useful?

Do you want to comment, Lynette?

David, I am keen to understand what improvements can be made. In your evidence, you highlighted that £1.8 billion—25 per cent—of the sector’s income, comes from contracts. The figure has doubled since 2007 and between 2018 and 2021 it again by £0.5 billion. What changes would you like to happen to increase that share?

What is your members’ experience of using the Public Contracts Scotland website? How easy is it to use? How transparent is it? Are any improvements required?

Right. I will leave it at that, convener.

Good morning, panel. When the public contracts Scotland procurement website was launched back in 2008, it allowed public contracts to be offered to a wider range of suppliers. What is your or your members’ current experience of it? Is it still accessible and how transparent is it?