Procurement

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) has a central Procurement team responsible for purchasing goods, services and works to support the business.

The public procurement reform programme, of which we are part, aims to drive up standards in the way the public sector procures goods and services to ensure that tax payers money is spent as wisely as possible.

We seek to deliver value for money in all of our purchases which means buying items which best match our requirements. Our procurement policy is in accordance with Scottish Government Procurement Policy in that all goods, services and works are acquired through competition, wherever possible, governed by procurement guidelines, procurement best practice and ensuring all relevant legal requirements and ethical standards are met.

View our Procurement Strategy (969 KB PDF) which is also available in the documents section of our Buyers page on Public Contracts Scotland.

View our Annual Procurement Reports which are also available in the documents section of our Buyers page on Public Contracts Scotland:

Annual Procurement Report for 2021-22 (601 KB PDF)

Annual Procurement Report for 2020-21 (1 MB PDF)

Annual Procurement Report for 2019-20 (1 MB PDF)

Annual Procurement Report for 2018-19 (850 KB PDF)

Annual Procurement Report for 2017-18 (529 KB PDF)

Doing Business with Us

Key information prospective suppliers should know if they are seeking to secure business with us.

Where possible we seek out opportunities to work with other Government organisations to establish collaborative contracts in order to take advantage of additional efficiencies. For certain requirements we use collaborative framework contracts let by Scottish Government, which can on the be found on the Scottish Government website. Crown Commercial Services contracts are available on the GOV.UK website.

Guidance for Suppliers on selling to the wider public sector can be found in the Supplier’s Journey on the Scottish Government Website   .

NRS fully supports the Scottish Government’s Suppliers’ Charter with regard to how NRS treats suppliers in the procurement process.

We aim to ensure that all of the requirements specifications issued by us clearly communicate our requirements. The Invitation to Tender will include the requirements specification; procedures for submitting a tender; details of information which must be provided by suppliers; any schedules to be completed; the basis of the evaluation of the tenders; and any security clearance requirements. We actively encourage suppliers to check that they understand the requirement(s) and clarify any issues with us prior to submitting a tender. To facilitate this process on our regulated contracts we routinely conduct Open Supplier Meetings which provide the Suppliers, who have been invited to tender, an opportunity to further clarify NRS requirements before submitting a tender.

Disclosure Scotland checks are routinely required for contractors who will be working within our buildings as part of the requirements of their contract. Where these checks are required they will be specified in the Invitation to Tender, or the Request for a Quote, documentation. Details of Disclosure Scotland can be found on their official website.

Contract Opportunities

We advertise our contract opportunities as they arise on the Public Contracts Scotland website:  You can express an interest in these opportunities by registering as a supplier on the site.

Our Buyer profile which includes our contract opportunities can be found by searching for National Records of Scotland in the ‘Search for Buyers’ section.

Our Register of Regulated contracts:

Register of Regulated contracts (270 KB PDF)

Please note: We do not maintain a list of approved or preferred suppliers.

The onus is on suppliers to check for advertisements of any contracts that may be of interest to them and then respond in accordance with the requirements set out in the advertisement.

Terms and Conditions

We use standard terms and conditions of contract, which are aligned with the Scottish Government standard terms and conditions, for all straightforward purchases and contracts.  The standard terms and conditions of contract will continue to be revised by in line with any newly introduced legislation and best practice.  The current standard terms and conditions of contract are available here. 

Our Standard Terms and Conditions:

Conditions of Contract for the Purchase of Goods (627 KB PDF)

Conditions of Contract for the Purchase of Services (731 KB PDF)

Conditions of Contract for Consultancy Services (other than Work Consultancies) (634 KB PDF)

Conditions of Contract for the Supply of Goods (and any Related Services) (616 KB PDF)

Conditions of Contract for the Sale of Goods (184 KB PDF)

Sustainable Procurement

Sustainable Procurement is "A process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis and generates benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society, the economy and the environment".

We recognise the need to drive sustainable procurement across all of our procurement activities.  Responsible and sustainable procurement is about achieving value for money whilst realising environmental, social and economic objectives. 

We aim to build sustainable procurement into our culture in order to take proper account of sustainability in procurement activities and to be able to demonstrate how this is achieved.Following a sustainable procurement process promotes a way of meeting the organisations needs for services, goods and works in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis. This generates benefits not only to the organisation but also to the wider community and the economy, whilst minimising damage to the environment.

The Scottish Government’s Sustainable Procurement Action Plan for Scotland outlines 10 steps to improve the sustainability of its procurement activity. We have adopted this plan and through a Sustainable Procurement Delivery Plan we are committed to making more sustainable choices that are required to deliver sustainable procurement and future plans for improvement.

Modern Slavery Statement

This statement summarises the actions and activities carried out by NRS in order to better understand the potential risks of modern slaves and human trafficking and the systems and controls that have been introduced to mitigate those risks

NRS Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement (113 KB PDF)