Council of Economic Advisers

8 Sep 2010 09:54 AM

The tenth and final meeting of the current Parliamentary session of the Council of Economic Advisers will take place at Stirling University this Friday.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, has paid tribute to the Council for the substantial contribution it has made since its establishment in 2007 in assisting the Scottish Government during the difficult economic climate.

The Council of Economic Advisers has brought together 11 world-class economists and business leaders to advise Ministers on how to improve Scotland's sustainable economic growth rate. With two Nobel laureates, the Council is one of the most distinguished team of experts ever assembled.

CEA members advise the Scottish Government for no charge at all - volunteering their time and expertise - which has been particularly valuable during the global economic downturn. Of the nine meetings to date, four have been held at Scottish universities and of the remainder, four have been held at publicly owned institutions such as the National Museum of Scotland. The total cost of a meeting has averaged approximately £16,000 - just one Noble Laureate can charge up to £20,000 for a single lecture.

The Council was based on American models that advise the President of the United States and the Governor of California. Both are acknowledged for the advice they give directly to Government leaders. The CEA has met nine times and has produced two Annual Reports. Of the 61 recommendations and considerations in these reports, the Scottish Government has accepted 54.

Key recommendations that the Council made include:

• reforming the planning system so that it contributes to increasing sustainable economic growth - improvements to the appeals process enabled around 80 per cent of written appeals to be dealt with by the Scottish Government within 12 weeks in 2009-10 compared to only 4 per cent in April 2008
• pursuing, with the UK Government, revisions to the current fiscal arrangements to meet Scotland's overall infrastructure needs and explore new means of borrowing, outside PFI
• advocating the Scottish Government continue to bring forward capital spending within a spending review period - an action which supported 5000 jobs with £350 million - and seek to have the ability to deploy year-end funds without discussion with the UK Treasury

Mr Swinney said:

"The Council of Economic Advisers has provided invaluable guidance to the Government throughout the course of this Parliamentary session. During recent years we have faced some of the most challenging economic conditions for generations and Scotland has been truly fortunate to be able to draw on the experience, skills and vast knowledge of members of the Council.

"Over the past two years the global economy has experienced the deepest recession in recent memory. The advice and support the CEA has provided during this time has helped shape the Scottish Government's response. In particular, the acceleration of capital spending has provided a vital flow of money to keep our economy moving and support thousands of jobs across Scotland. With the help of these measures, the recession in Scotland was shorter and shallower than for the UK as a whole.

"This meeting will no doubt provide further critical advice on how to secure the recovery now underway across Scotland and put our country on the path to a more successful and prosperous future."

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