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13 July 2007

New Joint Head of Government Economic Service

Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser and Director General of Economics at BERR, has been appointed joint Head of the Government Economic Service (GES).

With Dave Ramsden, she will be responsible for the professional direction and development of over 1000 economists in more than 30 Government departments and agencies.

Vicky Pryce, who is the first female and first non-Treasury Head of the GES, said:

"I am delighted to be given this opportunity. The GES is one of the strongest professional bodies in Whitehall and has been going from strength to strength. The previous head, Sir Nicholas Stern, showed the important role that economics can play in shaping and influencing policy in many areas of Government - not least, with his own report on the economics of climate change. I am looking forward to continuing to push the role of analysis and evidence in better policy-making across Whitehall."

Notes for editors

  1. The GES is a professional grouping of over 1000 UK civil service economists who work in more than 30 government departments and agencies. The GES recruits economists on behalf of the departments and is the largest recruiter of economists in the UK. It facilitates the movement of GES economists between posts in different departments and also helps maintain professional standards for existing economists.
  2. Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell and HM Treasury Permanent Secretary Nicholas Macpherson oversaw the process for the appointment. The appointment is for an initial period of two years.
  3. The previous Head of the GES was Sir Nicholas Stern.
  4. Vicky Pryce is Chief Economic Adviser and Director General of Economics at the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, (BERR). She will carry out her new role with the GES in addition to her responsibilities at BERR. She has been a Deputy Head of GES since 2002. Prior to joining the Civil Service she held a variety of senior economist positions, including partner at London Economics, Chief Economist and then Partner at KPMG; Corporate Economist for Esso Europe and Chief Economist for Williams & Glyn's Bank (later the Royal Bank of Scotland). She holds numerous professional positions including, Visiting Professor, CASS Business School (2001-2006), on the Council of the Royal Economic Society (2002-2007); Fourth Warden of the Court of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants (a City of London Livery Company); Member of the International Advisory Board of British American Business Inc; Member of the Research Advisory Board of the Association of British Insurers, on the Board of trustees of the RSA, Member Fellow of the Society of Business Economists and on the Council of the University of Kent.
  5. Dave Ramsden has been Managing Director of the Treasury's new Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy Directorate and joint Head of the GES since June 2007. Prior to this he was the Treasury's Chief Macroeconomist and Director of the Macroeconomics and Fiscal Policy Group. Dave began his civil service career in the Government Economic Service in the Department of Health and Social Security and joined the Treasury in 1988. He has worked on a wide range of macroeconomic and microeconomic policy issues relating to the UK and European economies including fiscal and tax policy and the public finances, the business sector and labour markets. Dave played a leading role on the UK's policy agendas for the EU stability and growth pact and economic reform and, from 2001 to 2002, he was a member of the EU's Economic Policy committee. Between 1999 and 2003 he led the Treasury's work on the Assessment of the Five Economic Tests and 18 EMU studies. This analysis was the basis for the Government's decision on UK membership of the single currency. Dave was awarded the CBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours for his work on EMU.
  6. For more information on GES please visit www.ges.gov.uk/moreinfo.htm

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