WIREDGOV

Crawford Beveridge, Sir Neil McIntosh and Robert Wilson will conduct Scotland's Independent Budget Review, it was announced yesterday.

The panel's remit was agreed as part of this year's Budget process and the work will now be taken forward independently of government, with Mr Beveridge, a former Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, as the chair.

Announcing the appointments, Finance Secretary John Swinney said:

"All three panel members will bring a wealth of public and private sector expertise to the Independent Budget Review.

"I thank them all for agreeing to give up their time to conduct the review which will consider the implications of forecasts of reductions in public spending in Scotland in the short and medium term. It is now entirely down to the panel to take forward this process under the remit agreed as part of this year's budget process."

Crawford W. Beveridge CBE is the former Executive Vice President of Sun Microsystems.

Crawford attended the University of Edinburgh, earning a BSc in social science. He followed that with an MSc in industrial administration from the University of Bradford.

Crawford's business background includes stints at Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment Corp. and Analog Devices. In 1985, he joined Sun as vice president of corporate resources, where he stayed until 1991 when he became Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise. In 2000, Crawford returned to Sun to fill the position of Executive Vice President People and Places and Chief Human Resources Officer.

Robert Wilson is a Partner in Deloitte Consulting based in Edinburgh.

An MA and MBA graduate, Robert began his career in public sector management in Scotland before moving into the private sector, initially into marketing and information systems and subsequently management consultancy. He has over 20 year's consultancy experience covering both the public and private sectors.

He specialises in business strategy, operational reviews, organisational transformation and major programme management. He has worked across most segments of the public sector as well as many private sector industry segments. He has also acted as a non-executive director.

A former chief executive of Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council and Strathclyde Regional Council, Sir Neil McIntosh has served as an Electoral Commissioner, Chief Counting Officer for the Scottish Parliamentary Referendum in 1997 and Returning Officer for the Strathclyde Water Referendum. He was knighted in June 2000.

Sir Neil chaired the Commission on Local Government and the Scottish Parliament in 1998/99. He was also Adviser to the Northern Ireland Review of Public Administration from 2002-2005.

Other public appointments have included Convener of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Chairman of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland, Trustee of National Museums Scotland and Civil Service Commissioner.

It was announced in June 2009 that Sir Neil had been appointed to carry out an independent examination of the Scottish Parliament's expenses system.

All three members have agreed not to take payment for the conducting the review, but will be reimbursed for expenses.

The Scottish Government agreed to commission an independent review of public expenditure in Scotland as part of this year's budget process. The purpose of this review will be to inform public and Parliamentary debate in advance of the next Comprehensive Spending Review, expected in Autumn 2010, about the challenges, and choices that will exist in a significantly constrained public spending environment and to ensure priorities can be established.

The Review will consider the implications of forecasts of reductions in public spending in Scotland in the short and medium term for the patterns of public spending that have developed since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.

The Review will consider the implications of these forecasts on spending programmes with a view to ensuring the long term sustainability of public spending in Scotland, incorporating evidence of demographic change.

The Review will make recommendations about the options for delivering public services within the constrained public expenditure environment in Scotland, which will be published. The review will report by end July 2010.

Related Information