The David Hume Institute

25 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN

Tel/Fax (0131) 667 9609

e-mail: Hume.Institute@ed.ac.uk Internet: http://www.ed.ac.uk/~hume/

NEWS RELEASE

Embargoed 'til 20 November 2002

AUTUMN SEMINAR SERIES 2002

"Has Devolution Delivered"

"Financing devolution. What should follow Barnett?"

SPEAKER

Professor David Heald, University of Aberdeen

to be held at

The Royal Society of Edinburgh, George Street, Edinburgh

6.00pm Wednesday 20^th November 2002

Professor Brian Main, Director of The David Hume Institute said: "The aim of this series is to provide a forum for discussion of some of the major devolution policy issues and developments which have been on Scotland's political agenda in the past 3 years and which continue to confront the Scottish Parliament. The Institute is delighted to welcome Professor Heald and it is expected that there will be lively and informed discussion following this seminar".

Professor Heald said: "Approaching the end of the first four-year term of the Scottish Parliament, we should look both backward and forward in time. Following the referendum victories in September 1997, there was the Scotland Act to pass and a new infrastructure to build, including the financial system for the Scottish Parliament.

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"My answer to the question 'What should follow Barnett?' is 'Something like Barnett', even if it has another name. What is important is that Scotland is well-prepared for the kind of fiscal arguments which characterise every federation or quasi-federal system, but for which the highly centralised UK system of public finances has left us ill-prepared."

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Professor David Heald, University of Aberdeen:

David Heald holds a chair in Accountancy and is Director of the Centre for Regional Public Finance at the University of Aberdeen.

He was a member of the Financial Issues Advisory Group whose recommendations on the financial procedures for the Scottish Parliament were enacted almost in full.

He is currently engaged in a research project on financing devolution within the United Kingdom, funded by the Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme of the Economic and Social Research Council.

Notes to Editors:

The views that will be expressed by the speaker are his own and do not commit the Trustees or Officers of the Institute in any way.

Issued by:

The David Hume Institute, 25 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN

For further information, please contact:

Catriona Laing Tel/Fax (0131) 667 9609

e-mail: Hume.Institute@ed.ac.uk