The body said the move represents a long overdue review and much-needed update to support small and medium-sized firms and streamlines public sector tendering arrangements. However, the Incorporation continues to demand a much more fundamental reform to Scotland’s failing approach to construction procurement.

Tamsie Thomson, chief executive of the RIAS, said: “We recognise the benefits of raising thresholds to SMEs, but we cannot look past the fact that these are tweaks, not a transformation. Scotland needs a procurement system that values quality, safety and long-term outcomes, not just lowest price. 

“Currently, the framework under the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 is failing professional services like architecture and may no longer be fit for purpose for construction. Cash-strapped public authorities are taking a tokenistic approach to quality, rewarding unsustainable bidding that erodes standards and increases risk.

“This is unacceptable in the wake of Grenfell, school closures and hospital failures. Twelve years since its inception, and with better models emerging elsewhere, Scotland must fundamentally rethink procurement when the next Parliament convenes after the May election.”

In its response, the RIAS supports the increase in thresholds and the benefits this represents in empowering architecture and construction SMEs in the procurement process. Where smaller firms often struggle with the costs and bureaucracy of regulated processes, raising thresholds for goods, services and works will reduce compulsory bidding for low-value contracts, and enable more contracts to be awarded without the burdens of full statutory regulation.

For the RIAS, this would create an opportunity to help SMEs to focus their resources on ‘quick quote’ opportunities where their track record and understanding of the client and context is valued, and competition remains between other trusted suppliers – decreasing the risk of bidding for work with little chance of success. 

Removing these regulatory barriers for smaller projects would also allow for leaner and faster local procurement, it added, with the potential to improve the delivery of public services and save local authorities time and money. This can, the Incorporation argued, be re-invested into scrutinising a smaller number of bids, with a view to driving up quality and reducing risk.

Whilst the RIAS supports the incremental changes outlined in this consultation, it warns that these modest adjustments do not go far enough in terms of addressing the broader structural challenges in Scotland’s procurement regime, and whether the framework is fit for purpose.

In light of multiple procurement scandals and quality failures over the last decade, and the need to accelerate net zero investment in the built environment, the RIAS called for significant reform or replacement of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

The RIAS argued strongly that the future system must put quality, collateral and long-term costs at the heart of scoring, not just price, and this must apply to contracts of all values – regulated and un-regulated, and irrespective of current or future thresholds. Ratios are so low that the quality component is largely irrelevant, inviting underbidding, it said.

For the RIAS, comprehensive and immediate action must now be taken to address the scourge of unsustainable pricing, which threatens the viability of the construction sector, drives down standards and increases the risk of building safety failures. Tenders with ratios of a minimum 80% quality and 20% price, aligned with graduated pricing assessments, are the best safeguard against the dangers of sub-economic bidding for both regulated and unregulated contracts.  

The RIAS said it is clear that unlike ‘pattern book’ standardised designs, well-designed buildings responding to their context offer the best overall value. Professional fees need to be sufficient to design for specific places and communities, and in anticipation of future needs, including a changing climate.