Tendering in Scotland and Wales: The Differences

The first thing to fix in your head is which law governs the tender in front of you, because it decides everything downstream.

England and Wales: the Procurement Act 2023 (PA23) has been the governing regime since 24 February 2025. Anything a contracting authority started before that date still runs to completion under the old Public Contracts Regulations 2015, so you will meet both for a while yet.

Scotland: a genuinely separate regime. Scottish public bodies buy under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 and the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016. PA23 does not apply to them. Different thresholds, different duties, different challenge route.

Wales: PA23 applies, but Welsh Government layers its own policy on top through the Wales Procurement Policy Statement and the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023. So the mechanics are the English mechanics, and the priorities and some of the duties are Welsh.

One quick test before you start work: who is the buyer and where do they sit? A Scottish council or health board means the Scottish regime. A Welsh council, a Welsh health board or the Welsh Government means PA23 with the Welsh overlay. Get this wrong and you will be reading the wrong rules for standstill, challenge and award.

This is the single biggest practical difference, and it works in an SME's favour in Scotland.

Under PA23 (so England and Wales), a contract only has to be advertised on the national service once it clears the current thresholds. As at 1 January 2026, and these figures include VAT, the headline levels are £207,720 for most goods and services bought by wider public bodies such as councils, and £5,193,000 (about £5.19m) for works. Below those, buyers use lighter below-threshold rules, with a notice floor of £30,000 for most of the wider public sector.

Scotland sets its own, much lower, national advertising thresholds. Broadly, goods and services must be advertised at around £50,000, and works at around £2m. So a £60,000 supply contract that an English council could handle as a quick below-threshold exercise becomes a formally advertised, regulated competition in Scotland.

For a small firm the effect is concrete. In Scotland, a lot more mid-value work is openly competed and published, which means more visible opportunities and more chances to build a track record on the record. It also means the bidding paperwork is more standardised, so the answers you write for one Scottish tender travel well to the next.

• ·England and Wales (PA23, VAT-inclusive, current 1 Jan 2026): sub-central goods and services £207,720; works £5,193,000 (about £5.19m); below-threshold notice floor £30,000 for most of the wider public sector.
• ·Scotland (own regime): goods and services advertised at roughly £50,000; works at roughly £2m; community-benefit duty triggered at £4m.
• ·Treat all thresholds as current figures, not permanent ones. They are revised on a cycle and are VAT-inclusive, so check the live number before you rely on it.

There is no single GB portal. You register separately depending on where the buyer is, and buyers also run their own e-sourcing systems on top.

Find a Tender (FTS) is the national service for higher-value notices across GB. It is where above-threshold opportunities surface regardless of nation, so it is worth watching wherever you bid.

Contracts Finder is the England service for lower-value and some higher-value public contracts. If you are chasing English council and central-government work below the FTS line, this is a primary source.

Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) is the Scottish national portal. Because Scottish thresholds are so much lower, a large share of Scottish public spend is advertised here, including the sub-£50k quick quotes many councils run through the PCS Quick Quote function. If you want Scottish work, you register on PCS.

Sell2Wales is the Welsh national portal. Welsh buyers advertise here alongside FTS, and it carries lower-value Welsh opportunities that will not appear on Contracts Finder.

On top of the national portals, individual buyers run e-sourcing systems such as ProContract (Proactis), In-tend, Delta eSourcing, Jaggaer and, for NHS bodies, Atamis. Each needs its own supplier registration, and the selection questionnaire is usually completed inside the portal rather than as an attachment. Expect to hold several logins.

The duties a buyer must discharge shape what they ask you for, so knowing them tells you what to write about.

Scotland puts a Sustainable Procurement Duty at the centre. Before it runs a regulated procurement, a Scottish contracting authority must consider how it can improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of its area, act to reduce inequality, and promote innovation. This is not a bolt-on scored section, it is a duty that runs through the whole exercise, and it explains why Scottish tenders lean hard on local benefit, fair work and environmental outcomes.

Fair Work First is the practical edge of this in Scotland. Expect questions about paying at least the real Living Wage, no inappropriate use of zero-hours contracts, and support for workforce voice. For a small firm this is answerable, but you need to be able to evidence it, not just assert it.

Community benefit clauses in Scotland become effectively mandatory to consider on larger contracts. Where a contract is worth £4m or more, the buyer must consider imposing community-benefit requirements, things like training places, apprenticeships, or support for local supply chains, and explain their approach.

In Wales, the equivalent priorities come through the Wales Procurement Policy Statement and the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, which push socially responsible procurement, fair work and the wellbeing goals of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Practically, Welsh tenders often ask for community benefits and social value framed in Welsh policy language, so answer in their terms.

All three nations want more than the lowest price, but they ask for it under different names and rules, and conflating them costs marks.

England, under PA23, uses the current national policy note on social value (the PA23-era note, not the older superseded guidance). For in-scope central-government procurements it sets a minimum weighting of around 10% of the score. Wider public bodies adopt it as policy rather than being bound to that exact floor.

Scotland delivers social value chiefly through the Sustainable Procurement Duty, Fair Work First and community benefits, rather than a single fixed percentage. The expectation is baked into the duty, so you will see it expressed as themes and outcomes across the tender rather than one ring-fenced weighting.

Wales frames social value through its own policy statement and social partnership legislation, with a strong wellbeing and fair-work flavour. The practical instruction is the same in all three: read how this particular buyer defines and scores the wider benefit, and write to that definition. Do not paste an English social-value answer into a Scottish tender and hope.

The way a competition is structured differs by regime, and it changes how you plan your bid.

Under PA23 (England and Wales), there are now two core routes. The open procedure is a single stage where anyone can bid. The competitive flexible procedure is a design-your-own route where the buyer sets the stages, any negotiation and any dialogue to suit the contract. The old named procedures (restricted, competitive dialogue, competitive procedure with negotiation, innovation partnership) are gone as fixed labels under PA23, though you will still meet them on pre-February-2025 procurements.

Scotland still uses the familiar named procedures from its own regulations: open, restricted, competitive procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue and innovation partnership. So a Scottish tender will tell you upfront whether it is a one-stage open competition or a two-stage exercise with a selection round first.

Two things hold true across all three. First, keep the selection stage and the award stage separate in your mind. Selection (can this supplier do it: certificates, insurance, financial standing) is pass or fail and is about your company. Award (which bid is best: comparative quality and price) is about your proposal. Never answer an award question with company-capability boilerplate. Second, there is a standstill period, typically eight working days under PA23, between telling you the outcome and signing, which is your window to read the feedback and decide whether to ask questions or challenge.

Before you commit time to a tender in Scotland or Wales, run through these.

None of this is hard once you know which regime you are in. The mistakes that cost SMEs are almost always regime-blindness: bidding to English rules in Scotland, missing a low-threshold Scottish opportunity because you only watch FTS, or writing generic social value that ignores Fair Work or the Welsh wellbeing goals.

• ·Identify the buyer's nation first, then the regime: Scotland means the Scottish Act and regulations; England and Wales mean PA23 (Wales with the Welsh overlay).
• ·Register where the work is: Public Contracts Scotland for Scotland, Sell2Wales for Wales, Contracts Finder for England, and Find a Tender for higher-value work across GB. Add buyer portals (ProContract, In-tend, Delta, Jaggaer, Atamis (NHS)) as you meet them.
• ·In Scotland, watch the low thresholds: a lot of £50k-plus work is openly advertised, including PCS Quick Quotes below that, so there is more to bid for than the FTS feed alone shows.
• ·Match your social value to the nation: Fair Work First and community benefits in Scotland, wellbeing and social partnership in Wales, the current national policy note in England.
• ·Keep selection and award answers separate, and diarise the standstill window so you do not miss your chance to seek feedback.
• ·Confirm current thresholds before you rely on them. They are VAT-inclusive and revised periodically.