Measuring the UK Economy The Role of UK Enterprise

Time

Items

Speakers

10.00 am

Welcome – Tony Dent, Better Statistics CIC

Tony Dent is chairman of CMR Group and past Chairman of both Sample Answers Ltd and the Alliance of International Market Research Institutes. The latter has now been submerged within the Insights Association. He is a statistician with over 40 years of International Market Research experience and has acted as a consultant to a number of companies, including the Civil Aviation Authority, DHL, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Radio Free Europe, and the Xerox Corporation. Tony holds a BSc and MSc in Mathematics and Statistics from Reading and Southampton.

Keynote: Measuring Gross Domestic Product how does business contribute?

James Benford (DG Surveys and Economic Statistics, ONS) is the recently appointed Director General for Surveys and Economic Statistics at the Office for National Statistics. Previously James was Executive Director for Data and Analytics Transformation at the Bank of England, having also served as Director of the Economics Group at HM Treasury, Director of Analysis at the Joint Biosecurity centre and as Private Secretary to Governors Mark Carney and then Andrew Bailey. – Link to slides

Forum – “How Important are Revisions?”

Chaired by Andy Ross (Chief Assessor for the Government Economic Service). Andy is a visiting professor at Birkbeck, University of London. A fellow of the Royal Economic Society, The Society of Professional Economists and the Academy of Social Science. Former Deputy Director in the Government Economic Service. Co-author with Vicky Pryce of ‘Mismanaged Decline’, ‘How to be a Successful Economist’ and ‘It’s the Economy, Stupid’.

Liz McKeown (Director Economic Statistics for external engagements, ONS) is responsible for much of the UK’s official economic statistics, including labour market statistics, GDP and the National Accounts and other key economic indicators. Prior to ONS, Liz held a range of analytical, strategy and policy roles across Whitehall, most recently as Chief Economist at the Cabinet Office.She is also currently serving on the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCOE) Advisory Board and as co-chair of the Scientific Committee for its annual conference.

Liz Barclay (Business 111 and small business advisor to the IoD). Following her work as the Government’s Small Business Commissioner, Liz launched Business111.com last June to help businesses navigate the complexities of public and private sector support. She has worked as a consultant on strategy and communications and a serial Board NED for 30 years alongside her career as a business journalist, author and broadcaster. Liz is passionate about the socio-economic value of small companies.

Forum – “The Value of Enterprise”

Chaired by Jonathan Haskel (Professor of Economics at Imperial College). Jonathan is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, where his primary research interests are productivity and growth. He has been a member of the Reporting Panel of the Competition and Markets Authority, a non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority and an External Member of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee. He is currently chair of the National Statistician’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel on Consumer Price Statistics. He has published in academic journals and written, with Stian Westlake, two non-technical books, Capitalism without Capital: the Rise of the Intangible Economy and Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy. – Link to slides

Richard Heys (Deputy Chief Economist ONS) leads on Well-Being, Beyond GDP, Productivity, and the ONS’s engagement with the update of the SNA. Richard has published widely on digitalisation, economic welfare, and public service productivity and was a member of the Bureau of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth from 2022 to 2024. He chaired the UN Network of Economic Statisticians’ Beyond GDP Sprint series and is co-Chair of the UN Expert Group on Well-being Measurement. Richard represents the UK on the OECD’s Working Party on National Accounts, the UNECE Expert Group on National Accounts, and is the UK delegate to the IMF Balance of Payments Committee (BOPCOM).

Ivan Gowan (CEO of Opagio Ltd, producers of the Growth Platform) is founder and CEO of Opagio Ltd, which measures firm-level intangible assets using the Opagio 12 — a granular operationalisation of the Corrado-Hulten-Sichel framework. He spent over twenty years automating regulated financial operations at IG Group and as CEO of Capital.com. Opagio’s methodology is protected under UK patent GB2607796.6. – Link to slides

Time

Items

Speakers

2.00 pm to 2.45 pm

Forum – Data for Public Policy

Chair: Sir Vince Cable, Former Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Sir Vince Cable: formerly the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade. Currently Vince is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, Nottingham and Shenzhen Universities. Vince has been the author of a number of books including “Money and Power”, “How to be a politician” and the recent book on the rise of China “Eclipsing the West”. – Link to slides

With Fergal Shortall, Director, Monetary Analysis, Bank of England

Fergal has been Director of Monetary Analysis at the Bank of England since June 2021, leading the economists providing advice to the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. Fergal first joined the Bank in 1999 and has worked on labour-market and supply-side issues, financial markets and macroeconomic forecasting. He has led divisions of the Bank looking at the international economy and financial system, and monetary policy strategy and impact. Prior to joining the Bank, Fergal worked on macroeconomic forecasting and energy policy at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin. An Irish national, Fergal studied at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Warwick.

And Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser at the CEBR

Vicky is also Visiting Professor at King’s College, London. She was formerly Joint Head of the UK Government Economic Service and chief economist at KPMG She is a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society and of the Society for Professional Economists, a Companion of the British Institute for Management, and a Fellow of the Academy for Social Sciences. She is Chair of the Economic Advisory Council for the BCC and Chair of the think tank Radix Big Tent; her latest book, “Mismanaged Decline” with Andy Ross, was published last November.

2.46 pm to 3.30 pm

Forum – Focus on Smaller Enterprises

Chair: Phyllis Macfarlane, Trustee of NatCen & Fellow of the Market Research Society

Phyllis is a Director of Better Statistics CIC and a life-long Market Researcher – starting her career as an assistant statistician, and culminating as MD of GfK NOP, one of the UK’s largest MR Companies. A past Chairman of the UK Market Research Society, Phyllis is a board member of the Archive for Social & Market Research and is a Trustee of Natcen. The underlying themes of her career have been people development and creatively adapting existing techniques to new situations – including the early development of B2B International Research. Phyllis has a BSc Hons in Mathematics from University College, London.

With Philip Davies, Deputy Director Business Surveys & Register Transformation, ONS

Philip has the responsibility for strategy, research and design of business survey data collection, and for the Inter-Departmental Business Register; he also leads the transformation of the Statistical Business Register. Following private sector roles within the actuarial field, Phillip joined ONS in 2008 and led several economic outputs and publications (short-term indicators, financial accounts and regional GDP) as well as a short period on the Covid-19 Infection Survey.

And Ian Cass, Chair The Micro-Business Alliance

Ian is chairman of the Microbusiness Alliance, and until recently was also the MD of the Forum for Private Business. Ian is passionate about the value of private enterprise and small business., having originally worked for Diageo for 14 years before starting to work independently, subsequently he has owned a couple of pubs and had founded Hunters gin. Ian has also been a business angel and investor for a variety of businesses.

4.00 pm to 4.30 pm

Final Forum – User Engagement

Chaired by: Tony Dent and James Benford with Ian Cass, Chair The Micro-Business Alliance and Rick Limenani, Senior Research Manager at the Federation of Small Business

Rick is a former McKinsey consultant with around 20 years of experience as a strategy consultant for large and small businesses around the world, specialising in the industrial, healthcare, and media sectors. He is FSBs Senior Research Manager, overseeing the survey programme and any data analysis done by the policy team. Outside of work he’s a magistrate and a playwright.