Scottish Ministers have made the Cross-Border Public Procurement (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025, approved by the Scottish Parliament and due to commence on 20 December 2025. The instrument aligns devolved procurement law with the UK Procurement Act 2023 by specifying when Scottish rules apply to procurements involving authorities elsewhere in the UK, and when those rules are disapplied.
Made under section 115(3) of the Procurement Act 2023 and laid under the affirmative procedure in section 122(14), the instrument amends the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016, the Concession Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 and the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. The operative date is 20 December 2025, with signature recorded on 3 December 2025 by a Scottish Minister.
In the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015, new regulations 3A and 3B are inserted. Regulation 3A confirms the Scottish public contracts regime applies without modification where a UK contracting authority conducts a procurement under a “devolved Scottish procurement arrangement” and the selection procedure is run jointly with one or more contracting authorities, or by a central purchasing body acting as a contracting authority. Where the award is made under a framework agreement or by reference to a dynamic purchasing system, only the provisions listed in a new schedule 7 apply, with any schedule‑specified modifications. The terms “UK contracting authority” and “devolved Scottish procurement arrangement” take their meanings from sections 2(1) and 114(4) of the Procurement Act 2023.
Regulation 3B of the 2015 Regulations disapplies the provisions listed in a new schedule 8 where a contracting authority carries out procurement under a reserved UK arrangement, a devolved Welsh arrangement or a transferred Northern Ireland arrangement (as all defined in section 114 of the 2023 Act). This prevents duplication and conflict of legal regimes when a Scottish body participates in another UK administration’s procurement framework.
The Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 are amended on the same model. A new regulation 3A applies the Scottish utilities regime in full where the selection procedure is conducted jointly or by a central purchasing body. Where the contract is to be awarded under a framework agreement or by reference to a dynamic market system, only the provisions listed in a new schedule 4 apply and some are textually modified. A new regulation 3B then specifies that the provisions listed in a new schedule 5 do not apply where the procurement is carried out under a reserved, devolved Welsh or transferred Northern Ireland arrangement. The schedule text illustrates targeted adjustments, for example modifications to the resale/lease exclusion and the omission of certain “buyer profile” references in publication rules.
The Concession Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016 receive a new regulation 7A. It confirms the concessions regime applies without modification where a UK contracting authority is operating under a devolved Scottish procurement arrangement and the procedure is run jointly or by a central purchasing body. The same Procurement Act 2023 definitions are used to maintain consistency across regimes.
The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 is updated for cross‑border coherence. Section 1 now refers to schedule 1, a new section 3A disapplies the provisions listed in a new schedule 2 when a procurement is undertaken under a reserved UK, devolved Welsh or transferred Northern Ireland arrangement, and section 41 is amended to include a reference to section 115A of the Procurement Act 2023. Together, these changes align Scotland’s 2014 Act with the UK‑wide framework established by the 2023 Act.
For practitioners, the operative test is two‑stage. First, determine whether the procurement sits within a “devolved Scottish procurement arrangement” or within a reserved/Welsh/Northern Ireland arrangement as defined by section 114 of the 2023 Act. Second, identify whether the award follows a joint selection procedure, a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing/market system. Those answers determine whether the Scottish regulations apply in full, in part via the new schedules, or are disapplied.
In practical terms, joint procedures within a devolved Scottish arrangement will continue under the familiar Scottish rules. Call‑offs from frameworks or awards via dynamic systems will instead engage only the specified provisions, some of which are modified for cross‑border use. Where a Scottish body participates in another UK administration’s statutory regime, identified parts of the Scottish regime are switched off to avoid conflicting obligations, reducing remedies risk.
Commercial teams should map each live or planned cross‑border procurement against the statutory definitions in sections 2 and 114 of the Procurement Act 2023, then check the new schedules for exactly which provisions apply and in what modified form. Governance, documentation and publication routes should be aligned accordingly from 20 December 2025, including call‑offs under existing frameworks and any dynamic purchasing or market systems used by collaborating authorities.
According to the instrument’s explanatory note, the schedules list the provisions applied or disapplied and, where relevant, set out modifications to make cross‑border operation workable under the 2023 Act. The note confirms the objective is to clarify how devolved Scottish procurement legislation functions when cross‑border procurements are regulated by the Procurement Act 2023, improving legal certainty for authorities and suppliers. The Regulations take effect on 20 December 2025.