The United Nations standard products and services code (UNSPSC) is an open, global, multi-sector standard for efficient accurate classification of products and services for buying, selling or otherwise exchanging goods and services in the global marketplace.
The UNSPSC is used for reporting procurement activity across the Australian Government, including under the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP). The UNSPSC is used by portfolios to decide whether a contract must meet mandatory minimum requirements (MMR). The mandatory minimum requirements are minimum levels of Indigenous employment and supplier use that must be met over the life of a contract.
This approach ensures First Australians gain skills and economic benefit from some of the bigger contracts awarded by the Australian Government, including in remote areas.
Codes for mandatory minimum requirements
MMRs for Indigenous participation apply to contracts wholly delivered in Australia that are valued at $7.5 million (GST inclusive) or more, where more than half of the value of the contract is being spent in one or more of the eight UNSPSC Industry Sectors in Table 1.
From 1 July 2020 an additional 11 UNSPSC Industry sectors apply to Approach to Market documentation for procurements to be wholly delivered in Australia where more than half the value of the contract is being spent in one or more of the specified UNSPSC industry sectors. Table 2 sets out the additional 11, bringing the total applicable UNSPSC Industry sectors to 19.
Table 1: Industry categories with Mandatory Minimum Requirements (including sub-category exemptions)
Effective from 1 July 2016
Table 2: Additional 11 Industry categories with Mandatory Minimum Requirements (including sub-category exemptions)
Effective from 1 July 2020
Finding the right code for a product or service
The codes can be accessed at www.unspsc.org. Non-members can access codes via the ‘Search-Code’ tab or by downloading a free pdf list of up-to-date codes from the ‘Codeset-Downloads’ tab.
The easiest way to find a code is to search the codeset online at https://www.unspsc.org/search-code.
A useful feature of the search the code function is to use “%” as a wild card. This can be used for the ‘Search Code’ field and ‘Search Title’ field.
If you want a complete listing of all codes starting with 72 (Building and Facility Construction and Maintenance Services), enter ‘72%’ in the Search Code field. The result returned is five pages of possible codes within this Industry sector range. All codes resulting from this search apply to MMR contracts.
Searching the ‘Title’ field will find the most appropriate 8 digit code to use for a particular good or service.
Entering ‘building%’ in the title field returns a list of codes for goods or services that start with ‘building’. Note results from this search may include categories that are not applicable to MMRs.
Entering ‘%building%’ in the title field returns a list of codes for goods and services that include ‘building’ in the title. Note results from this search may include categories that are not applicable to MMRs.
If you are unable to find a code for a good or service, please contact your Portfolio’s procurement team for advice.
