Professor David Heald - About Myself

Professor David Heald About Myself
About Myself Curriculum Vitae Research Presentations Participations Videos Publications Public Testimony Contributions to Policy Impact of Research Media Coverage
I am Emeritus Professor at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. My research interests focus on: public sector accounting reform; public expenditure management and control; public audit; infrastructure financing; and financing devolved governments. In these areas, I also have extensive policy involvement. In October 2014 I was awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences and, in March 2016, Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. I have edited two books in the Proceedings of the British Academy series: Transparency: The Key to Better Governance? (2006) with Christopher Hood (All Souls College, Oxford) on the relevance of 'transparency' to public policy; and When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective (2014) with Christopher Hood and Rozana Himaz (then Oxford Brookes University, now at University College London). I have written up the results of a Leverhulme Trust project as 'Transparency-generated trust: The problematic theorization of public audit'. With Ron Hodges (Birmingham), I have published on The accounting, budgeting and fiscal impact of COVID-19 on the United Kingdom'. With Tom Mullen (Glasgow) and Gordon Marnoch (Ulster), I directed an ESRC-funded project on 'Communicating Brexit's Impact on the Law, Governance and Public Finances of the UK Devolved Nations and the Republic of Ireland'. Information about this project can be found on the project website at impactbrexit.com. My research on the effects of austerity on the governance of public bodies and on the use of government guarantees has been published, as has my analysis of the United Kingdom’s divorce bill from the European Union. Current research is on the local audit crisis, Whole of Government Accounts and problems in UK accounting and fiscal governance. Since 2020, I have been a member of the UK Treasury’s User and Preparer Advisory Group on government financial reporting, having earlier been a member of its Financial Reporting Advisory Board (2004-09). Since 2023 I have been a member of the Scottish Government’s Advisory Group on Tax Strategy. From January 2025 I am a member of the Local Authority (Scotland) Accounts Advisory Committee which is an independent committee that develops and promotes proper accounting practice for local government in Scotland, contributing to the Code Of Practice On Local Authority Accounting. I chaired a working group of the Royal Society of Edinburgh which responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on Council Tax and also published an Advice Paper in October 2023. From time to time, I submit written evidence to parliamentary inquiries, and have given oral evidence to select committees of the UK Parliament (on the local audit crisis in England) and of the Scottish Parliament (on Spending Reviews, fiscal sustainability, prospects for the 2025-26 Scottish budget, and local authority finance and audit). Home About Myself Curriculum Vitae Research Presentations Participations Videos Publications Public Testimony Contributions to Policy Impact of Research Media Coverage
David Heald at Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow Email: david.heald@glasgow.ac.uk