MSPs to question economic advisers

Feb 22 2012

Members of the Scottish Government's Council of Economic Advisers are to be quizzed by MSPs, following their first meeting last month.

Council chairman Crawford Beveridge, a former chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, and Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett, an economist, will answer questions from Holyrood's Economy Committee.

The council consists of academics, economists and entrepreneurs and was established in 2007 to give economic advice to ministers.

It was relaunched by the First Minister in November 2011, with new members given a specific agenda to look at jobs, economic recovery, internationalisation and "economic levers".

The new membership, which also features includes businessman Jim McColl and Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz among others, met for the first time on January 24. The council will meet again in Aberdeen this month.

The council was the subject of debate at Holyrood at the end of last year when Conservative leader Ruth Davidson asked the First Minister to explain why it had not met since September 2010.

She described the group as "our best chance in several generations to tackle the problem of systemic economic mediocrity".

Alex Salmond said the appointment of the council's new membership took place in November 2011, being delayed by the Scottish elections.