Procurement

View procurement information on:

Contracts register

Aberdeenshire Council in accordance with Section 35 of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 have a legal obligation to publish a Contracts Register as a statement of current and future opportunities.

Aberdeenshire Council's Contracts Register is based on information and supporting documentation provided by Budget Holders and will continually undergo a verification process by Commercial and Procurement Services.

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Information - Below are additional providers of procurement opportunities, please be advised that this list is not exhaustive.

Public Contracts Scotland gives free access to contract opportunities in Scotland Public Contracts Scotland Advertisement Portal - to find details of contracts with Scottish Local Authorities, NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government, Agencies and NDPBs, Higher and Further Education and Emergency Services by browsing the available contracts. Suppliers can also register to receive free e-mail alerts for any opportunities specific to their business. Future Planning from PCS can be downloaded.

The Scottish Government provides a range of commercial, property and programme and project management services within the Scottish Government and wider public sector in Scotland. Framework Opportunities from the Scottish Government.

Scotland Excel is the Centre of Procurement Expertise for Scotland's local government sector Scotland Excel.

The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) brings together policy, advice and direct buying; providing commercial services to the public sector and saving money for the taxpayer. The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) brings together policy, advice and direct buying; providing commercial services to the public sector and saving money for the taxpayer. Procurement Opportunities provided by Crown Commercial Services.

Conditions of contracting with the council

The Council have terms and conditions that suppliers are required to adhere to when they deal with the Council. Where there are larger value contracts that deal with particular goods, works or services specific bespoke terms and conditions may be issued with tender documents for these. However, attached are the Councils general Conditions of Contract for the provision of Goods and Services where no bespoke Council terms and conditions apply.

Tender opportunities

Going forward, in order to improve accessibility to our current tender opportunities wherever possible the Council will publish details of current tenders from both Aberdeenshire Council and Aberdeen City Council on the Scottish Government's National tender advertising website Public Contracts Scotland.

Aberdeenshire Council tenders for property and constructions trades

Aberdeenshire Council is keen to engage with the local market as much as possible for all future tender opportunities. Tendering for public sector contracts can seem a daunting process but help is available to make it as straightforward as possible.

All public sector contract opportunities (over a certain value) are advertised via the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) portal which is free to use. The PCS portal is where all public bodies (such as councils, police, NHS) advertise their tenders. Interested suppliers are encouraged to register on this portal and sign up for alerts – by registering and linking your business with categories of work which are of interest to you, the system will then automatically email you notification of tender opportunities as and when they are published, for these areas. You can restrict your interest to certain geographic areas if you prefer and are under no obligation to respond to any notifications sent.

The Scottish Government have provided a service specifically to support micro and SME businesses with public sector tendering – the Supplier Development Programme. Again a free to use service and they frequently run online events and training sessions. 

Aberdeenshire Council will often undertake some form of supplier engagement session, whether that be a virtual meeting or a presentation within Woodhill House (current restrictions permitting). These will be advertised via the PCS portal mentioned above.

As a recent example, on the back of recent market engagement events Aberdeenshire Council have now published tenders relating to 2 new frameworks for property construction trades. One requires suppliers of individual trades to cover a wide variety of trade services in relation to Minor Works projects, whilst the other is to address Lifecycle Component Replacement projects.

Minor Works

This framework is split geographically – we’re not only looking for multi trade contractors or someone who can cover a large area of Aberdeenshire. We wish to set up a framework of lots of contractors with work being awarded on an individual project basis so all Trades are encouraged to apply and state what trade(s) and area(s) it is you wish to be considered for.

Find out more about the Minor Works framework.

Lifecycle Component Replacements

Whilst this initial opportunity has closed, it will be reopened again so anyone interested should still keep an eye on PCS.

We would encourage anyone interested in this opportunity to register with the PCS portal and use the link above to access the tender notice. There is a 'questions and answers' function within the portal for the tender so please raise any queries you many have via this route.

Other publications

As well as advertising our schemes on our Tender Portal, we also sometimes advertise in the press or appropriate trade journals and publications. You should look for our adverts in the following publications:

Larger contracts

All purchasing by the public sector in the UK and the rest of Europe must follow the rules of the EU Treaty. This is designed to ensure the free movement of goods and services in the European Union market. There are special European rules for public contracts above certain values, see below, which aim to make sure that the contracts are awarded in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory way. The European Directives are implemented in this country by a number of regulations, which set down the procedures that local authorities must follow when selecting tenderers and awarding contracts.

The EU procurement thresholds for local authorities are:

  • Service and supply contracts over 172,514
  • Works contracts over 4,322,012

Any firm can apply for these schemes, and they are advertised in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU).

Community Care and Support Services

The Commissioning of Community Care and Support Services is managed by the Council's Commissioning Team, which is part of the Housing and Social Work Service. Tender opportunities for community care and support services are also published on the Public Contracts Scotland website (see Tender Opportunities section above). Bespoke terms and conditions exist for community care and support services, and information about these or any other matters relating to the commissioning of community care and support services can be obtained by contacting the Commissioning Team.

Schools

Some schools have their own individual budgets, though they are directed to use corporate arrangements.

Schools are required to adhere to the same principles of fairness, openness and transparency.

Tender documents

At present, not all tender documents are available on the Tender Portal, and in these circumstances you will be sent a paper copy. More and more Council business is being conducted electronically. If you cannot currently do business this way you should give it some serious consideration. When documents are available on the Tender Portal, you can download them and either print them off or save them to your own computer.

Although the tender documents are quite detailed, they are intended to encourage you to tender for our business. If you have any queries regarding the documents do not be afraid to get in touch with the named contact for assistance.

You will be asked to complete and return your tender documents by a given time and date, using a specific tender return label.

Tender return and evaluation

The tender documents are all opened at the same time after the tender return date. Once the tender documents have been opened, they are forwarded to the appropriate council officers for evaluation.

If you fail to return your tender documents by the specified deadline, your tender will be excluded from the evaluation process. If it's late, it's too late. The tender evaluation criteria are established before tenders are invited and are stated in the documentation.

Contract award

If your tender submission meets all the evaluation criteria then you could be awarded the contract. Any such contract will be based on the Council's Conditions of Contract (Terms and Conditions) that you have agreed to in responding to the tender.

Seeking feedback

If you are unsuccessful and wish to seek feedback, you should contact the named council officer detailed in the tender documentation. This officer will be able to explain why your tender was unsuccessful and possibly provide some indicators as to how you might improve on future bids.

Payment

The Council has prompt payment targets. This means that we are committed to paying all invoices within 30 days of receipt, irrespective of invoice value or payee.

Supplier development

The purpose of supplier development is to support the local business community to develop capacity and capability to bid successfully for public contracts.

The following resources are designed to increase understanding of public sector procurement policy and legislation and to reduce barriers to business:

Joint procurement strategy 

View Aberdeen City Council, Aberdeenshire Council and The Highland Council joint procurement strategy 2017 - 2022.

Procurement annual report

View Aberdeenshire Council procurement annual report 2020/21 (pdf 1.56MB).

Sustainability and climate change

Example procurement questions around environmental measures (pdf 118KB) have been developed to support the consideration of sustainability and climate change issues by potential bidders for council contracts.

Contact

Commercial and Procurement Service

Aberdeenshire Council
Woodhill House
Westburn Road
Aberdeen
AB16 5GB

Email: CPSCityShire@aberdeencity.gov.uk
Telephone: 01467 530600