Advisory Group on Economic Recovery: FOI release

Information requested

1. All the incurred costs by the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery, ranging from the council’s initiation to the present date with a full breakdown of those costs.
2. A full membership list for any members of AGER between its initiation and the present date.
3. A list of all engagement with Scottish Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries between its initiation and the present date.

Response

With regards to all three points above, the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery was a short life group which effectively ended on publication of the report.

Specifically, in response to point 1 of your request for all costs incurred by the AGER Group, all meetings since the group’s initiation in April 2020 have been held online at no cost. AGER group members received no remuneration fees for the services they provided. Costs were incurred to provide for the publication of the final AGER report: Towards a Robust, Resilient Wellbeing Economy for Scotland: Report of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery. This amounted to £1,432.68 (inc VAT).

In response to point 2 of your request for a full membership list of members of AGER between its initiation and the present date, this can be found online here: https://www.gov.scot/groups/advisory-group-on-economic-recovery/.

The full list has also been reproduced below:

• Benny Higgins (Special Advisor to the First Minister on the Scottish National Investment Bank and Member of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland)
• Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli (Principal of the University of Glasgow)
• Professor Anna Vignoles (Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge)
• Dame Sue Bruce (Electoral Commissioner with responsibility for Scotland and a Non-Executive Director with Scottish and Southern Energy)
• Professor Dieter Helm (Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford)
• Professor John Kay (economist whose career has spanned the academic world, business and public affairs)
• Grahame Smith (outgoing General Secretary of the Scottish Trade Union Congress)
• Dame Julia Unwin (senior strategic leader with extensive professional experience in the voluntary and public sectors, and corporate social responsibility)

Your third request was for a list of all engagement between Scottish Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries and the AGER group between its initiation and the present date. Information related to ministerial engagements is published regularly online through Proactive Release.

To reiterate, the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery was a short life group which effectively ended on publication of the report and consequently, details of meetings for the entirety of 2020 covering the operation of the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery can be found here: Ministerial engagements, travel and gifts - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

About FOI

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