About the tool

Over the past decade there has been a consistent message from the construction industry in Scotland, citing the need for clear visibility of an anticipated pipeline of work across the public sector. This was cited as a requirement in the Construction Procurement Review in 2013 and has been put forward as a recommendation in the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland’s second report, published in July 2020. 

In October 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Construction Leadership Forum published the Construction Industry Recovery Plan. The plan set out a series of short, medium, and long-term actions to aid recovery.

One action was to develop an outline proposal for a forecast construction pipeline database extending to the wider public sector. The construction industry reaffirmed the need for such a system to support business planning, jobs and investment within the sector.

In response to this recommendation the Scottish Futures Trust, in partnership with the public sector and industry, have developed the Construction Pipeline Forecast Tool for Scotland.

Industry Benefits

1. Provide business confidence through greater transparency of forecast construction spend;
2. Enable targeted upskilling and business investment to respond to future pipeline projects;
3. Enable greater collaboration within the supply chain;

Public Sector Benefits

1. Efficient and centrally managed system to enable greater transparency; 
2. Enable greater collaboration and insight in forecast investment by place;
3. Support the development of a sustainable and prosperous construction industry to deliver high quality public sector infrastructure;

To date, over 40 public bodies have contributed data to the forecast tool. The forecast tool will be updated every 6 months and it is intended that the number of public bodies providing data will increase at each 6-monthly interval.

For further information on the data, its purpose and how we use the data, please refer to the Data Summary. ​