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29 March 2000
TREASURY APPOINTS INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIST
Roger Procter has been appointed as Directorate Chief Economist in the Public Services Directorate (PSD) in succession to Norman Glass who is leaving to head up the National Centre for Social Research. This is one of the most senior and influential posts in the Treasury.
Currently the Director of Macroeconomic Forecasting and Policy in the New Zealand Treasury, Roger Procter is the second appointee from outside of the Civil Service to the Board of PSD in the last two months. He has been appointed through open competition.
As Chief Economist in the PSD, Roger will take the lead in ensuring the Treasury's work on public services and expenditure contributes to the wider economic strategy, setting standards of economic appraisal and evaluation throughout Whitehall, and improving modelling and policy analysis in Government. He will also manage the teams responsible within the Treasury for public sector pay and productivity.
The PSD's main objectives are to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public services while keeping public spending within the Government's fiscal plans. It is responsible for running the Government's Spending Review which will settle in the summer the objectives, targets and budgets for all departments and public services for the years to 2003-04.
Lucy de Groot, lately the Chief Executive of Bristol City Council, was appointed in February to oversee Treasury work on a range of issues including the environment, education, defence and culture. This is the first time the Treasury has appointed people from outside the Civil Service to senior posts of this sort. The other members of the Board are John Gieve (the Director), Gill Noble and Adam Sharples.
Roger Procter is due to take up his new post at the Treasury early in the Summer.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Roger Procter is 49 and married with three children. He has been in the New Zealand civil service since 1974. He is currently working as the Director of Macroeconomic Forecasting and Policy in the New Zealand Treasury having previously been Director of the Regulatory and Tax Policy Branch. He spent two years on secondment to the Treasury working on health policy and macroeconomics in the mid 1990s.
He is a graduate of Canterbury University in New Zealand and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston USA, the latter on a Fulbright Study Award. He has also worked for the OECD in Paris.
The salary range for this post is £61,110 to £98,400.