Scottish Economic Statistics Consultation Group

Overview

The Group covers the following National Statistics Themes (or parts of themes):

• The Economy
• Commerce, Energy and Industry
• Labour Market
• Tourism
• Local Government Finance

The purpose of the Group is to identify the key strategic statistical information required by all interested parties, and to develop and implement a strategy for prioritising and meeting these needs while minimising, where possible, the burden on data suppliers and maintaining quality fit for purpose.

The main elements of this are:

• identification of the principal gaps in the provision of Scottish economic statistics;
• advice on the prioritisation of areas of new and developmental work;
• provision of technical advice on existing methodologies, developmental work and new indicators;
• working within the overall ScotStat structure.

In these respects the group will:

• consider and provide advice on any issues raised by the ScotStat Board, by members of the Group or other contributors;
• consider existing information on the economy, in order to identify gaps or redundancy in information;
• provide advice on prioritising and filling of gap areas, and on any additional resource implications;
• comment on the Scottish Economic Statistics Programme;
• oversee the working group on Local Government Finance;
• set up temporary working groups to consider particular issues when necessary;
• contribute to work on cross-cutting issues or areas of joint interest with other ScotStat theme Groups;
• consider the options for effective dissemination of Scottish economic statistics in ways which will provide for maximum access, ease of understanding and use;
• consider different channels through which future work might be pursued;
• provide annual feedback on progress to the ScotStat Board.

The group will meet twice yearly, and a summary of key points will be circulated to the Chairs of the other ScotStat committees. Members of the Scottish Economic Consultants Register who do not attend meetings will also be consulted from time to time and kept informed of proceedings.

An archive of past papers and minutes of this group may be found at this page of the National Records of Scotland archive of gov.scot.

Related groups

• Sub-Scotland Economic Statistics Group
• Input-Output Expert User Group

Members

Scottish Executive SESCG members include:

Name	Email
Sandy Stewart (chair)	Sandy.Stewart@gov.scot
Gary Gillespie	Gary.Gillespie@gov.scot
Andrew Mortimer	Andrew.Mortimer@gov.scot
Stevan Croasdale	Stevan.Croasdale@gov.scot
Richard Morrison	Richard.Morrison@gov.scot
Deborah Pegg	Deborah.Pegg@gov.scot
Valerie West	valerie.west@gov.scot
Marina Curran	marina.curran@gov.scot
Dave Hurst	david.hurst@gov.scot
Jonathan Davidson	jonathan.davidson@gov.scot
Graeme Roy	graeme.roy@gov.scot
Richard Murray	richard.murray@gov.scot

External SESCG members include:

Name	Organisation
Claire McDonald	Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Alex Morton	South Lanarkshire Council
Brian Ashcroft	University of Strathclyde
Charles Burton	Oxford Economics
Donald MacRae	Lloyds Banking Group - Scotland
Hervey Gibson	Cogent Strategies
Iain Duff	Bank of England
Paul Hughes	Scottish Enterprise
Stephen Boyd	STUC
Jim Dewar	Scottish Parliament Information Centre
Kim Swales	Fraser of Allander Institute
Richard Harris	CPPR
John Dewhurst	University of Dundee
Jonathan Crook	University of Edinburgh
Jim Cuthbert	Independent consultant
Margaret Cuthbert	Independent consultant

Publications