Question reference: S4W-30563
- Asked by: Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 10 March 2016
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Current status: Answered by John Swinney on 24 March 2016
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, other than the Scottish Wide Area Network contract, what other IT contracts it has let in the last five years in which a specified percentage of the contract was required to be subcontracted to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), and what the outcome was.
Answer
Principles deriving from the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union require that all public bodies treat all suppliers bidding for public contracts equally and without discrimination, including on the basis of size. It is for bidders to determine how best they will offer to deliver a contract and public bodies cannot, in normal circumstances, within invitations to tender specify that the successful bidder must sub-contract to a third party.