Procurement Journey
Route 1
Route 1

Route 1

This Route provides guidance and templates for procurements that are:

  • low value (a total estimated value of under £50k excluding VAT)
  • low risk and
  • non-repetitive.

This Procurement Journey Route should only be used by individuals who are authorised to procure for their Scottish public sector organisation.

You do not need extensive purchasing training, however it is assumed that you have an awareness of:

  • EU regulations
  • applicable local procurement policies, guidelines and governance arrangements. 

If your procurement does not meet the above requirements, or you do not have the authority to procure, contact your Procurement Function or Centre of Expertise (CoE) .

Route 1 Objectives

The main objectives of this Route are to:

  • provide a step-by-step guide to conduct a low value and low risk procurement exercise;
  • provide a set of guides and templates that can be used to collate and analyse the data required for a Route 1 procurement exercise;
  • standardise the Scottish public sector procurement process across organisations for low value procurements;
  • highlight the minimum legal and policy obligations involved at each stage of the process.

Before carrying on, please check you have everything you need:

  • Budgetary sign off and sponsorship.
  • Individuals with relevant experience to evaluate responses and write the brief.
  • Timescale plan.

Considerations Before Proceeding

Before you start your Procurement Journey, please consider the following points:

  1. Is the product/service you are buying business critical?
  2. Is there a significant risk to your Organisation's reputation or ability to deliver if something went wrong with what you are buying?
  3. Is the estimated value of the goods/services that you are buying more than £50,000 over the lifetime of the contract?  If so, this means that Route 1 cannot be used as the contract needs to be advertised and formally tendered.

To calculate the estimated value of the contract you should add the spend for the full contract duration, including any contract extensions. 

For example, a contract of £10,000 per year (excluding VAT) over three years plus a 1 year £10,000 extension (excluding VAT) is a £40,000 contract i.e. 3 x £10,000 + £10,000.

Please note, requirements must not be 'split' into contracts of lower value, or contracts reduced in duration, to avoid the need to advertise/conduct a full tender exercise.

  1. Are existing contracts already available that you could use e.g. call off from?
  2. Does your Organisation have a lower advertising threshold?  If so, should you follow the Route 2 process?  This information will be held with your Finance Department or Procurement Function
  3. Is there a conflict of interest?  Do you or someone in your organisation stand to benefit from the outcome of the procurement?  For example: benefit financially? Have friendships with suppliers? Previously worked for suppliers? If so should the buyer and/or evaluating team be changed? 

If you have answered 'yes' to any of the above questions please contact your local Procurement Function or Centre of Expertise (CoE) before proceeding.

Audit Requirements

You should keep a file for your Route 1 procurement documents, in case of future audit.

You should make sure you are familiar with:

  • your Organisation's document retention policy; and
  • any guidance which may impact on the project before starting.

Please note that purchases of goods and services may routinely be the subject of Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.

You are now ready to begin Route 1 of the Procurement Journey.

Please ensure this guidance is used in conjunction with the internal governance, policies and procedures for your Organisation.

Back to top