Lynn Garvie, Head of Procurement, The Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament (Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) is the national unicameral legislature of Scotland.  The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood" is the democratically elected body comprising 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).  The first meeting of the Scottish Parliament took place on 12 May 1999.  The Parliament’s founding principles are openness, accountability, the sharing of power and equal opportunities. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) was established by the Scotland Act 1998 to provide the Parliamant with the property, staff and services required for the Parliamant’s purposes.  The SPCB comprises 5 MSPs, one of whom is the Presiding Officer. Procurement Services is the office responsible for all procurement activity carried out on behalf of the SPCB. Lynn has been Head of Procurement for the Scottish Parliament since its inception in 1999, setting up the procurement function, developing its policies, and responding to diverse issues in a very high profile environment.  Previously, she has held senior purchasing posts within different Government Departments, including a brief but memorable period in sales with the Scottish Prison Service.  Lynn leads a team of 15 staff and has adopted a progressive approach to procurement within the Parliament, notably developing its responsible purchasing initiative, the strategy for which was launched publicly at the end of January this year.  The strategy aims to deliver tangible results that make a difference, now and in the future.

A Responsible Purchasing philosophy for the Scottish Parliament

Lynn Garvie, Head of Procurement, The Scottish Parliament

• The rebirth of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 brought a sense of anticipation and renewed national identity. The Parliament’s sustainable Purchasing philosophy began at that point and culminated with the public launch of a Responsible Purchasing (RP) strategy in January 2008. 

The culture of the Parliament remains positive, prepared for challenges, questioning, courageous, open and transparent.  This is reflected in the way procurement delivers its services.

Procurement Services operates in a highly politicised environment.   Early on, we started to receive a large number of questions from Members on diverse and complex issues such as environmental impact, Scottish produce, child labour and fair trade and realised that we would have to approach this holistically and in a systematic manner. 

In 2003 we engaged the Centre for Human Ecology who helped us to produce a 3-step implementation plan and define our initiative as “Responsible Purchasing”.

For us, Responsible Purchasing means:

• High professional standards for purchasing staff
• Procurement decisions have the minimum possible adverse impact on the environment
• Taking account of ethical and social issues
• Giving SMEs and Scottish suppliers equal opportunities to gain contracts

The term “Responsible Purchasing” was adopted rather than, say “sustainable procurement” as we felt it better describes these themes.

Between 2003 and 2006 we achieved real progress. For example:

• Produced stand-alone RP policy and procedures
• Sustainability issues included in the procurement process
• Training for Parliament staff
• Attendance at external events to keep abreast of developments
• Communication of our vision to internal stakeholders and contractors

In working towards best practice (step 3 of the implementation plan), the goal was to develop an RP Strategy that would be instrumental in delivering tangible benefits to the Parliament and society.

Obtaining support and buy-in

We needed to have complete buy-in from all stakeholders. We:

• Developed a detailed project plan
• Held interactive workshops for SMEs and existing contractors
• Communicated with external organisations, e.g. FSB, CBI, WWF, Oxfam, public sector organisations

Collaboration

We knew that we could not deliver this alone so worked collaboratively across the Parliament and externally:

• With the Parliament’s specialist managers (Environment, Health & Safety and Equal Opportunities) to further develop our thinking.

• Held focus groups and workshops (internal & external) to identify emerging priorities and enable effective consultation. 
• External collaboration was extensive and included formal consultation, firstly with a small number of selected experts and interested bodies, and then through a public process.

The result

This culminated in the formal public launch of the RP Strategy (www.scottish.parliament.uk/corporate/procurement/responsible.htm) in January 2008, with speakers including Simon Pepper (WWF Ambassador) and the Parliament’s Chief Executive.  The Strategy contains 100 time-bound objectives, including the commitment to publish progress on the Parliament’s website.  This was our bold step, a challenge to us to be accountable for progress and to stand up and be counted – publicly.

We have not produced well meaning rhetoric, but rather, tangible improvements that are becoming a benchmark for other public sector organisations.  Simon Pepper started his speech by saying “this is ground-breaking stuff” and ended by describing the strategy as “rather than a patchy collection of worthy policies, this is a systematic approach that aims to transform the Parliament’s culture”. 

We are extremely proud of what we have achieved to date.  From a purchasing function that did not exist 9 years ago, we have progressed to being recognised as delivering best practice in terms of Responsible Purchasing. 

Our commitment

• To implement our strategy in an open & accessible manner.
• To publish progress and case studies against the objectives (over 30 objectives have been met to date). 
• To keep abreast of developments and revise our approach accordingly
• To continue to review the strategy to include increasingly stretching objectives.  This project will never end!

Our Vision

Let's not cost the earth...

Through continually challenging our activities and encouraging and inspiring others, our Responsible Purchasing approach will deliver tangible results that make a difference, now and in the future...

...for society and the environment