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Contract Award Notice

DECON-Labour Market Statistics and Financial Data Feasibility Project

  • First published: 11 February 2026
  • Last modified: 11 February 2026
  • Version: N/A
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Contents

Summary

OCID:
ocds-h6vhtk-0595af
Published by:
Scottish Government
Authority ID:
AA26920
Publication date:
11 February 2026
Deadline date:
-
Notice type:
Contract Award Notice
Has documents:
No
Has SPD:
No
Has Carbon Reduction Plan:
N/A

Abstract

The Scottish Government’s Labour Market Statistics team has awarded a contract for a feasibility study to assess the potential of using anonymised financial data to enhance national and sub-national labour market statistics. The feasibility study will establish if and how we can extract and assess labour market trends such as employment, unemployment and economic inactivity from financial data such as bank transactions, payroll records, or other administrative financial data. The ultimate aim of this study is to establish whether or not this type of data and methodology could add valuable insights to our existing statistics on an ongoing basis (subject to future procurement activities).

Full notice text

Contract award notice

Results of the procurement procedure

Section I: Contracting entity

I.1) Name and addresses

Scottish Government

Victoria Quay

Edinburgh

EH6 6QQ

UK

E-mail: marc.jones@gov.scot

NUTS: UKM

Internet address(es)

Main address: http://www.scotland.gov.uk

Address of the buyer profile: https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/Search_AuthProfile.aspx?ID=AA10482

I.2) Joint procurement

The contract is awarded by a central purchasing body

I.4) Type of the contracting authority

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions

I.5) Main activity

General public services

Section II: Object

II.1) Scope of the procurement

II.1.1) Title

DECON-Labour Market Statistics and Financial Data Feasibility Project

Reference number: 795891

II.1.2) Main CPV code

79310000

 

II.1.3) Type of contract

Services

II.1.4) Short description

The Scottish Government’s Labour Market Statistics team has awarded a contract for a feasibility study to assess the potential of using anonymised financial data to enhance national and sub-national labour market statistics. The feasibility study will establish if and how we can extract and assess labour market trends such as employment, unemployment and economic inactivity from financial data such as bank transactions, payroll records, or other administrative financial data. The ultimate aim of this study is to establish whether or not this type of data and methodology could add valuable insights to our existing statistics on an ongoing basis (subject to future procurement activities).

II.1.6) Information about lots

This contract is divided into lots: No

II.1.7) Total value of the procurement

Value excluding VAT: 148 000.00  GBP

II.2) Description

II.2.2) Additional CPV code(s)

73110000

79311400

71241000

79314000

II.2.3) Place of performance

NUTS code:

UKM

II.2.4) Description of the procurement

The Scottish Government’s Labour Market Statistics team has awarded a contract for a feasibility study to assess the potential of using anonymised financial data to enhance national and sub-national labour market statistics. The feasibility study will establish if and how we can extract and assess labour market trends such as employment, unemployment and economic inactivity from financial data such as bank transactions, payroll records, or other administrative financial data. The ultimate aim of this study is to establish whether or not this type of data and methodology could add valuable insights to our existing statistics on an ongoing basis (subject to future procurement activities).

Objectives

- Evaluate the feasibility of using financial data to enhance Scottish labour market statistics on employment, unemployment and economic inactivity.

- Develop a Scotland-specific dataset using anonymised financial data for feasibility analysis

- Validate Scotland-specific dataset against official statistics (e.g., Census 2022).

- Develop inference methodology and provide strategic recommendations for future data use in Scotland and the rest of the UK based on this.

Scope of Requirement

The requirement is for services. Specifically, we ask that suppliers provide the following, however, bidders are invited to suggest alternative approaches that could also meet the needs of the specification:

- Segmentation and categorisation of suppliers financial datasets to meet Scotland and sub-Scotland level breakdowns and categorisations of data, with a focus on demonstrating high quality data and robust sample sizes.

- Validation of dataset and research outputs against official national statistics, including the Scottish Census and other reference datasets, to evidence representativeness of the data based on criteria to be agreed, and accuracy of outputs.

- Methodology development to establish economic trends from suppliers financial data, specifically employment, unemployment and economic inactivity (see glossary).

- Data analysis services using anonymised financial data that the suppliers have access to, analyse outputs for trends in employment, unemployment and economic inactivity, alongside other economic variables, for Scotland and sub-Scotland geographies and different population groups.

- Geodemographic analysis to identify labour market trends across sex, age, and Local Authority as a minimum, although breakdowns by other protected equality characteristics would be beneficial.

- Strategic reporting to summarise methodologies and findings and potential uses of financial data in economic trends, recommend data provision formats and frequencies for ongoing delivery of data, and identify gaps in current labour market data provision.

II.2.5) Award criteria

Quality criterion: Quality / Weighting: 80

Price / Weighting:  20

II.2.11) Information about options

Options: No

II.2.13) Information about European Union funds

The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: No

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1) Description

IV.1.1) Type of procedure

Open procedure

IV.1.8) Information about Government Procurement Agreement (GPA)

The procurement is covered by the Government Procurement Agreement: Yes

IV.2) Administrative information

IV.2.1) Previous publication concerning this procedure

Notice number in the OJ S:

2025/S 000-054594

Section V: Award of contract

Contract No: 795891

A contract/lot is awarded: Yes

V.2 Award of contract

V.2.1) Date of conclusion of the contract

04/02/2026

V.2.2) Information about tenders

Number of tenders received: 1

Number of tenders received from SMEs: 1

Number of tenders received from tenderers from EU Member States: 0

Number of tenders received from tenderers from non-EU Member States: 0

Number of tenders received by electronic means: 1

The contract has been awarded to a group of economic operators: No

V.2.3) Name and address of the contractor

Smart Data Foundry

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Lauriston Place

Edinburgh

EH3 9EF

UK

NUTS: UKM75

The contractor is an SME: No

V.2.4) Information on value of the contract/lot (excluding VAT)

Total value of the contract/lot: : 148 000.00  GBP

V.2.5) Information about subcontracting

Section VI: Complementary information

VI.3) Additional information

(SC Ref:823222)

VI.4) Procedures for review

VI.4.1) Review body

Edinburgh Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court

27 Chambers Street

Edinburgh

EH1 1LB

UK

VI.5) Date of dispatch of this notice

10/02/2026

Coding

Commodity categories

ID Title Parent category
79311400 Economic research services Survey services
79314000 Feasibility study Market research services
71241000 Feasibility study, advisory service, analysis Architectural, engineering and planning services
79310000 Market research services Market and economic research; polling and statistics
73110000 Research services Research and experimental development services

Delivery locations

ID Description
100 UK - All

Alert region restrictions

The buyer has restricted the alert for this notice to suppliers based in the following regions.

ID Description
There are no alert restrictions for this notice.

About the buyer

Main contact:
marc.jones@gov.scot
Admin contact:
N/a
Technical contact:
N/a
Other contact:
N/a

Further information

Date Details
No further information has been uploaded.

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