Award of Trial of Airtime Communications on MPV Hirta (MS-P-0327)

About the buyer

The Scottish Government is a devolved central government department that buys through its Scottish Procurement and Property Directorate. Regulated procurements across the Scottish public sector are advertised on Public Contracts Scotland, the national portal set up in 2008. Bids are usually submitted through PCS-Tender, the national eTendering system it funds. The directorate also runs frameworks covering construction, corporate services, ICT, professional services, utilities and HR. Many of these frameworks are open to the wider Scottish public sector as well as central government. The Supplier Development Programme offers free tender training to SMEs and third sector organisations.

Procurement spend from central entities makes up 66% of overall UK public spend.

Over the past 5 years, most of the Scottish Government's contract awards have been in business services, IT services and research and development.