Under the terms of the Scottish Fiscal Commission Act 20161 ("the Act"), the Scottish Fiscal Commission (SFC) became a statutory body as a Non-Ministerial Department on 1 April 2017. The Act states that the SFC is to normally consist of a Chair and at least two but no more than four other members.
The current Chair of the Commission is Dame Susan Rice and there is currently one other Commissioner, Professor Alasdair Smith.
Section 15(3) of the Act states that the—
Scottish Ministers may appoint a person as a member only if the Scottish Parliament has approved the appointment.
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Economy and Fair Work wrote to the Committee on 26 September 2018, setting out his nominations for the appointment of two new commissioners to the SFC. His letter along with CVs and application forms for each nominee is available in the Committee meeting papers for 3 October 2018.1 The two nominees are—
Professor David Ulph CBE, Professor of Economics, University of St Andrews; and
Professor Francis Breedon, Professor of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of London.
In advance of the Parliament being invited to approve the two appointments, the Committee questioned the nominees against the advertised job specification for the posts at its meeting on 3 October 2018. The job specification is also included in the Committee meeting papers. The official report of the meeting is available on the Committee's website2.
Following the evidence session, the Committee agreed to recommend to the Parliament that it approve the Cabinet Secretary's nominations for appointment to the SFC.
The Committee also wrote to the Cabinet Secretary seeking more information regarding how the recruitment process supports diversity and gender balance representation within the SFC.
The Committee recommends that the Parliament approves the appointment of Professor David Ulph and Professor Francis Breedon as members of the Scottish Fiscal Commission.