Professor David Heald

Presentations

 
Professor David Heald

    2024

  • David Heald participated in a round table at the "It's a Numbers Game" research workshop to mark the book launch of The Resilience of New Public Management (Oxford University Press, 2024), held during an in-person day event at the University of Edinburgh Business School on 13th March 2023.
  • David Heald took part in a Royal Society of Edinburgh fringe meeting held at the Scottish Labour Party Conference on 16 February 2024 on the topic of devolved taxation. The RSE holds fringe meetings every year at each of the main Scottish political party conferences. The speakers at this event were David, Caroline Gardner (former Auditor General for Scotland) and Michael Marra MSP (Labour finance spokesperson), with Michael Keating (General Secretary of the RSE) in the chair. David concentrated on Scottish Income Tax and Council Tax, making reference to an RSE Advice Paper on Council Tax and the Celtic Academies Alliance report on 'Unlocking fiscal autonomy: The evolution of devolved taxation'.
  • David Heald presented 'Why public audit is vital for transparency and trust' at a staff meeting of the Northern Ireland Audit Office on 1 February 2024. His central argument is that public audit offices should concentrate on increasing transparency, with enhanced trust a possible consequence if that is justified by public sector performance.

    2023

  • David Heald presented on 'Scotland's devolved taxation' at the Royal Society of Edinburgh's Devolved Tax Policy Round Table on 17 May 2023 in collaboration with the other Celtic Academies. The views expressed are those of David Heald and not of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The presentation is available here.
  • David Heald gave a presentation on 9th March 2023 at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Working Party on Financial Management and Reporting, a constituent part of the OECD s Network of Senior Budget Officials. His topic was Why the contingent liabilities of governments need to be better reported and monitored , the presentation being available here. His analysis was reported in the May 2023 issue of AB Accounting and Business, the magazine of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, under the title Contingent liabilities scrutinised .
  • As a member of HM Treasury s User-Preparer Advisory Group on Government Financial Reporting, David Heald gave a presentation to UPAG on 8th March 2023. His topic was The usefulness of the UK Whole of Government Account , the presentation being available here.

    2022

  • David Heald, on behalf of Ron Hodges (Birmingham) and himself, gave a presentation on 'What went wrong with the UK s accounting and fiscal governance?' at Durham University Business School on 12 December 2022. This was a contribution to the workshop on 'What is the future of public accountability in the aftermath of crisis?', organised by the International Centre of Public Accountability.
  • David Heald gave a seminar on What does a decade of Whole of Government Accounts tell us about UK fiscal sustainability? at the International Centre of Public Accountability at the University of Durham on 23 November 2022. A revised paper has now been published online in Public Money & Management as The under-realized potential usefulness of the UK Whole of Government Accounts, co-authored with Lynn Bradley and Ron Hodges.
  • As a member of HM Treasury s User-Preparer Advisory Group on government financial reporting, David Heald presented 'Academic perspective on government financial reporting' at the UPAG meeting on 22 April 2022.

    2019

  • David Heald made a presentation on strategy and governance on 11 December 2019 to the Board of Revenue Scotland, which is the Non-Ministerial Department responsible for Scotland s devolved taxes.

    2018

  • David Heald spoke on 'Varieties of transparency as an analytical tool' at the Volkswagen Foundation's Herrenhausen Conference on 'Transparency and Society - between Promise and Peril'. This event was held at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, in Berlin on 12-14 June 2018. The programme can be found here.
  • David Heald presented on 'The impact of Brexit on Scotland's public finances' on 28 March 2018 at the University of Glasgow. This was the eighth event in a series of Knowledge Exchange seminars, organised by the project on 'Communicating Brexit's impact on the law, governance and public finances of the UK devolved nations and the Republic of Ireland'. This project was directed by David Heald (Glasgow), Gordon Marnoch (Ulster) and Tom Mullen (Glasgow). The project website, providing PowerPoint slides and videos can be found here. David Heald's presentation can be found here, and a video summary can be found here.
  • David Heald and Gordon Marnoch (Ulster University) presented on 'The implications of Brexit for public spending and public services' on 8 March 2018 at St Matthew's Conference Centre, 20 Great Peter Street, Westminster, London. This was the seventh event in a series of Knowledge Exchange seminars, organised by the project on 'Communicating Brexit's impact on the law, governance and public finances of the UK devolved nations and the Republic of Ireland'. This project was directed by David Heald (Glasgow), Gordon Marnoch (Ulster) and Tom Mullen (Glasgow). The project website, providing PowerPoint slides and videos can be found here. David Heald's presentation can be found here, and a video summary can be found here.
  • David Heald and Gordon Marnoch (Ulster University) presented on 'Public spending and services in Scotland after hard Brexit' on 1 February 2018 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This was the sixth event in a series of Knowledge Exchange seminars, organised by the project on 'Communicating Brexit's impact on the law, governance and public finances of the UK devolved nations and the Republic of Ireland'. This project was directed by David Heald (Glasgow), Gordon Marnoch (Ulster) and Tom Mullen (Glasgow). The project website, providing PowerPoint slides and videos can be found here. David Heald's presentation can be found here, and a video summary can be found here.
  • David Heald and Iain Wright presented their paper on 'How Big Should Be the United Kingdom's Exit Bill from the European Union? Insights from Modes of Accounting' at the 'Accounting for the Public Sector at a Time of Crisis' conference on 17-18 January 2018. This was organised by the Centre for Not-for-profit and Public Sector Research at Queen's University Belfast. Their revised paper has been published in Abacus, a leading accounting journal.
  • David Heald presented his research findings at a session on 'Budgetary and financial process reform' at the Study of Parliament Group's annual weekend conference, held at Worcester College, Oxford, on 5-7 January 2018. He spoke alongside parliamentary clerks to committees of the UK and Scottish Parliaments, to whose recent inquiries on financial reform he had given evidence.

    2017

  • David Heald contributed to the Thinker's Programme of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. The symposium took place at the Royal Flemish Academy in Brussels on 11-12 December 2017, titled 'The Limits of Transparency', focusing on what transparency shows and what it hides. David Heald's slides on 'The uses and abuses of transparency' appear here. Emmanuel Alloa (University of Fribourg) has edited a book derived from the presentations made at the symposium, published in 2022 by the University of Leuven Press, titled This Obscure Thing Called Transparency. David Heald's chapter appears here.
  • David Heald presented (Powerpoint slides here and video here) on 'Public finance and public expenditure implications' at the 'Wales, Devolution and Brexit' seminar, held in Cardiff on 6 November 2017. This was the fourth event in a series of Knowledge Exchange seminars, organised by the project on 'Communicating Brexit's impact on the law, governance and public finances of the UK devolved nations and the Republic of Ireland'. This project was directed by David Heald (Glasgow), Gordon Marnoch (Ulster) and Tom Mullen (Glasgow). The project website, providing PowerPoint slides and videos can be found here.
  • David Heald was a panel member at a workshop on 'Transparency in EU Governance', held on 1 June 2017 at the Universit Libre de Bruxelles. This was organised by the ValEur project on 'Governing values, governing through values, governed by values? The European Union as a risk polity', within the Institut D' tudes Europ ennes. His presentation was titled 'The Uses and Abuses of Transparency'.
  • David Heald presented on 'The Big Divorce Bill, and the implications for Scotland's spending' at the 'Negotiating Brexit' seminar, held at the University of Glasgow on 25 April 2017. This seminar was held under the Chatham House Rule but he recorded a brief summary of his talk. This was the first event in a series of Knowledge Exchange seminars, organised by the project on 'Communicating Brexit's impact on the law, governance and public finances of the UK devolved nations and the Republic of Ireland'. This project was directed by David Heald (Glasgow), Gordon Marnoch (Ulster) and Tom Mullen (Glasgow). The project website, providing PowerPoint slides and videos can be found here.
  • David Steel (University of Aberdeen) presented the paper by David Heald and himself on 'The Governance of Public Bodies in Times of Austerity' at the Conference on 'Public Services and Charities: Accounting, Accountability and Governance at a Time of Change', held at Queen's University Belfast on 18-19 January 2017. A revised version of this paper has been published in 2018 in an issue of the British Accounting Review.

    2016

  • David Heald spoke on 'Economic and financial issues' at the 24 November 2016 stakeholder seminar on Brexit, 'The Implications for the Nations', organised by the Centre on Constitutional Change, University of Edinburgh.
  • David Heald was a panellist at the session on 'Fiscal federalism around the world' at the 2016 National Tax Association Annual Conference, held in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, on 10-12 November 2016.
  • David Heald gave a seminar on 'Why is fiscal transparency about public finances so elusive?' on 8 November 2016 to the Fiscal Affairs Division of the International Monetary Fund. This drew on ideas in his 2012 article in the International Review of Administrative Sciences and his 2015 think-piece for the Global Initiative on Fiscal Transparency.
  • David Heald gave a seminar on 'Fiscal squeeze in perspective' on 7 November 2016 to the Governance Division of the World Bank. This drew on his 2014 co-edited book from the British Academy, When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective.
  • David Heald was co-chair at the 2016 New Public Sector Seminar in Edinburgh on 3-4 November 2016. The theme was 'Transparency and trust in public services', the other co-chairs being Irvine Lapsley (Edinburgh) and Peter Miller (London School of Economics). David Heald's own presentation was developed and was published in 2018 as Transparency-generated trust: The problematic theorization of public audit.
  • David Heald was a speaker at the 'Scotland and Brexit' conference on 20 September 2016, organised by Edinburgh University's Centre on Constitutional Change. He spoke on the implications of Brexit for Scotland's public finances, in the context of the implementation of the Scotland Act 2016 and of the Fiscal Framework negotiated in March 2016 between the UK and Scottish Governments. On this video link. David Heald's speech is at the beginning of Part Two. After other speakers, the Question and Answer session to which he contributes starts at 39 minutes into Part Two.
  • David Heald spoke on Scotland's Fiscal Framework on 20 August 2016 at the Business Planning Event, held at the University of Stirling for the newly-appointed Finance Committee of the Scottish Parliament following the 2016 Scottish parliamentary election.
  • David Heald made an invited contribution at the Overseas Development Institute's High-Level Round Table on 'Capabilities of Finance Ministries', held in the Auditorium at Her Majesty's Treasury, London, on 6 June 2016.
  • David Heald spoke on 'Scotland's New Fiscal Framework' on 14 April 2016, at a staff training event for the Scottish Parliament Information Centre.
  • David Heald acted as discussant on a paper on 'Sovereign debt restructuring and growth' at the Banca d'Italia's Public Finance Workshop, held in Rome from 31 March to 2 April 2016. The overall theme was 'Current Issues in Fiscal Policy'.
  • David Heald made a presentation on 'Scotland's Fiscal Framework' at the 'Devolution and Fiscal Governance Conference: How devolved governments are funded and how the system is changing', held at the Institute for Government in London on 29 March 2016. A video of the event appears here.
  • David Heald spoke on proposed European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS) at the European Court of Auditors' Workshop, held in Luxembourg on 25-26 January 2016. The title of his session was 'Financial accounts, national accounts, budgets: three versions of one reality?'. The video of his presentation appears here.

    2015

  • David Heald pre-recorded an interview on fiscal transparency, in English with Italian sub-titles, for an Italian webinar on 16 July 2015. This webinar was organised jointly by the Polytechnic of Milan (Politecnico di Milano) and OpenCoesione (a transparency initiative of the Italian Government which, inter alia, hosts data analyses on the disbursement in Italy of EU funding). The title of the webinar was 'La trasparenza de finanziamenti pubblici nell'era dell'ICT: une sfida aperta'.
  • David Heald took part on 5 June 2015 in a panel discussion on fiscal transparency at the 4th Global Transparency Conference held in Lugano, Switzerland. The contributors were authors of think pieces commissioned by the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency's project on incentives for fiscal transparency. David Heald summarised his own think piece on 'Surmounting the obstacles to fiscal transparency', which applies ideas published in his 2012 article in the International Review of Administrative Sciences and in his 2013 chapter in the International Handbook on Public Financial Management.
  • David Heald took part on 20 May 2015 in 'Accounting for the European public sector: Round Table on the ongoing reform of European Public Sector Accounting Standards (EPSAS)', one of the sessions of 'Which Accounting Regulation for Europe's Economy and Society', organised by the Research Lab on Financial Regulation (LabEx Refi). This was held under the auspices of the European Parliament, as part of the '10th Rendez-vous Européens de Strasbourg'. An audio recording appears here and the published lecture appears here. His views about the the potential role and consequences of EPSAS were published in August 2015, in an academic paper, co-authored with Ron Hodges of Birmingham Business School.
  • David Heald contributed to the National Audit Office conference on guarantees for instructure funding, which brought together, on 17 March 2015 for a video call, participants at the NAO's Newcastle-upon-Tyne and London offices. This presentation was the origin of the academic paper now published by David Heald and Ron Hodges (University of Birmingham) on Accounting for government guarantees: perspectives on fiscal transparency from four modes of accounting'.
  • David Heald co-organised and spoke on 'The Future of Fiscal Squeeze' at the British Academy Forum held at the British Academy on 5 February 2015. This brought together academics and senior policy-makers from the United Kingdom and overseas, in order to discuss the implications for future austerity policy of When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective, edited by Christopher Hood, David Heald and Rozana Himaz (Proceedings of the British Academy 197, Oxford University Press, 2014). The discussion was on the basis of Chatham House rules, while the British Academy has published a news item about this knowledge exchange event, including the list of participants.
  • David Heald spoke on 23 January 2015 at the conference on 'Devolution and Federalism in a post-Referendum UK' at the Edinburgh building of the Open University in Scotland. This was jointly organised by the Open University Business School, the Urban and Regional Economic Seminar Group and Policy Scotland.
  • David Heald gave a seminar on 21 January 2015 at the Dundee Business School, Abertay University, on 'Fiscal devolution after the Referendum'.

    2014

  • David Heald participated in the Round Table on 'Austerity' on 6 November 2014 during the annual 'New Public Sector' seminar, held at the University of Edinburgh. He expounded the conceptual ideas in his co-edited book, When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective, (Proceedings of the British Academy 197, Oxford University Press, 2014). He also made use of material which has now appeared in his article (co-authored with Ron Hodges of the University of Birmingham) on 'Will austerity be a critical juncture for European public sector financial reporting?' (Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2015).
  • David Heald made a presentation on 'Austerity post-2015' at the dinner meeting of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE) at Edinburgh City Chambers on 26 June 2014. He applied to Scotland some of the ideas in his co-edited book, When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective, Proceedings of the British Academy 197, Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • David Heald made a presentation on 'Austerity post-2015' at an Institute for Government seminar in London on 12 May 2014. He applied to the United Kingdom some of the ideas in his co-edited book, When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective, (Proceedings of the British Academy 197, Oxford University Press, 2014).
  • David Heald acted as discussant on a paper on 'Towards a semi-(narrative) analysis of fiscal policy in EU member states' at the Banca d'Italia's Public Finance Workshop in Perugia on 3-5 April 2014. The overall theme was 'Public Finances Today: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead' and the Proceedings were published in March 2015.
  • David Heald participated in the annual meeting of OECD Senior Budget Officials Network on Public-Private Partnerships, held in Paris on 17-18 February 2014.
  • David Heald submitted written evidence and also gave oral evidence on 10 February 2014 to the House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee's inquiry into the public expenditure implications of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2015. The Committee's report made reference to his evidence. The video of the oral evidence appears here.
  • David Heald made a presentation on 'Funding after a NO Vote: Reform of Barnett and Implementation of the Scotland Act 2012' at a conference, held at the University of Glasgow on 28 January 2014, organised by the Scottish Constitutional Futures Forum. At the time this was a hypothetical scenario: a parallel event had already been held about the case of a Yes vote in the 18 September Scottish Independence Referendum.
  • David Heald and David Steel (Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen Business School) presented their work on the Governance of Public Bodies to a Joint Breakfast Meeting of the Chairs Forum and the Chief Executives Forum, held on 14 January 2014 at the University of Ulster's Belfast campus. Later that day they presented their research to an academic seminar at the Jordanstown campus. The results of that research were later published as 'Making the governance of public bodies work: chair-chief executive relationships in practice' (Public Money & Management, 2015) and 'Governance of public bodies in times of austerity' (British Accounting Review, 2018).

    2013

  • David Heald was a speaker on 12 November 2013 at the Overseas Development Institute in London, at the launch event for the International Handbook of Public Financial Management. He spoke about his Handbook chapter on 'Strengthening fiscal transparency'.
  • David Heald presented on the UK experience of accruals accounting in government at a Round Table organised at ESCP Paris on 25 October 2013. This Round Table was motivated by Eurostat proposals for harmonised public sector accounting standards, provisionally known as EPSAS. The programme appears here. Up-to-date information on progress with EPSAS is available here.
  • Professor Christopher Hood (All Souls College, Oxford) and David Heald were the academic organisers of a two-day conference on Fiscal Squeeze held at the British Academy on 9-10 July 2013. They contributed papers to the conference, which included nine country studies of historical episodes of fiscal squeeze, written to a common analytical framework. The resulting book was published in October 2014, by Oxford University Press, as Proceedings of the British Academy 197, When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective, (edited by Christopher Hood, David Heald and Rozana Himaz).
  • David Heald and David Steel (Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen Business School) presented their work on the Governance of Public Bodies at five Knowledge Exchange and Transfer workshops, held in London (British Academy) and Edinburgh (Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh), during the period May - July 2013. On a Chatham House rules basis, they reported and discussed the results with participants from public bodies, sponsoring departments and academics. The research had been been financed by a British Academy small grant and the cost of the workshops by a competitively-won grant from the University of Aberdeen. The results of that research were later published as 'Making the governance of public bodies work: chair-chief executive relationships in practice' (Public Money & Management, 2015) and 'Governance of public bodies in times of austerity' (British Accounting Review, 2018).
  • David Heald acted as discussant on papers presented at the session on 'Experiences and prescriptions' at the Banca d'Italia's Public Finance Workshop in Perugia on 4-6 April 2013. The overall theme was 'Fiscal Policy and Macroeconomic Imbalances' and the Proceedings were published in November 2014.

    2012

  • David Heald participated in Forum 2 of the Wales Governance Centre's programme on the UK's Changing Union. The topic was 'Public Finance in a Changing Union', held at the MacDonald Hotel, Windsor, on 23-24 November 2012.
  • David Heald presented a synopsis on 'A framework for analysing fiscal squeeze' at the Fiscal Squeeze workshop, organised in conjunction with Professor Christopher Hood (Oxford). This was held at All Souls College, Oxford, on 19-20 April 2012. This workshop was preparatory to their Fiscal Squeeze conference at the British Academy in July 2013, which in turn led to the publication in October 2014 of When the Party's Over: The Politics of Fiscal Squeeze in Perspective (edited by Christopher Hood, David Heald and Rozana Himaz).
  • David Heald acted as discussant on papers presented at the session on 'Policies to promote sustainable growth' at the Banca d'Italia's Public Finance Workshop in Perugia on 29-31 March 2012. The overall theme was 'Fiscal Policy and Growth' and the Proceedings were published in July 2013.
  • David Heald participated in the annual meeting of the OECD Senior Budget Officials Network on Public-Private Partnerships, held in Paris on 26-27 March 2012. He acted as discussant on a Eurostat presentation on the treatment of Public-Private Partnerships in national accounts.
  • David Heald participated in the event on 16 March 2012 at the Institute for Government held to mark the 65th birthday of Professor Christopher Hood. His presentation was based on his contribution ('On transparency', p. 36-37) to Explorations in Governance: A collection of papers in honour of Christopher Hood, edited by Ruth Dixon and Martin Lodge.
  • David Heald gave an oral presentation on 'Legal dimensions of economic and financial matters' at the Scotland's Constitutional Future seminar on 'The Process of Constitutional Change', held on 27 January 2012 in Glasgow University's Senate Room.

    2011

  • David Heald and Alasdair McLeod (Honorary Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen Business School) presented the United Kingdom's experience of financing devolution at the International Colloquium held in Brussels on 9 December 2011 in the Flemish Parliament, which was celebrating its 40th anniversary.
  • David Heald made a presentation on 'Public audit's role in relation to public expenditure transparency' at the Annual Summit of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance's Better Governance Forum on 13 October 2011.
  • Together with Ron Hodges (then University of Sheffield), David Heald presented a paper at the 13th Biennial Conference of Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR), held at the University of Ghent on 9-10 June 2011. The paper was titled 'The full cycle of a performance management system: the "Use of Resources" assessment for English local authorities'.
  • David Heald presented a paper on the external surveillance of public finances at the First Global Transparency conference, held at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, on 19-20 May 2011. Material from this presentation later appeared in 2013 in his book chapter on 'Strengthening fiscal transparency' published in the International Handbook of Public Financial Management.
  • David Heald acted as discussant on papers presented at the session on 'National fiscal frameworks: the evidence', at the Banca d'Italia's Public Finance Workshop in Perugia on 31 March - 2 April 2011. The overall theme was 'Rules and institutions for sound fiscal policy after the crisis' and the Proceedings were published in November 2012.
  • David Heald participated in the annual meeting of the OECD Senior Budget Officials Network on Public-Private Partnerships, held in Paris on 24-25 March 2011. At that meeting, he made a presentation on 'PPP accounting: transparency and governance'.
  • At a conference at the University of Edinburgh on 18-19 March 2011, David Heald presented a synopsis on 'The prospects for public expenditure'. This was later developed into a chapter ('Rethinking public expenditure from a social democratic perspective') for a book on The Crisis of Social Democracy, edited by Michael Keating (University of Aberdeen) and David McCrone (University of Edinburgh) (Edinburgh University Press, 2013).
  • On 15 March 2011, David Heald gave a lecture on 'The architecture and governance of UK public audit' at the University of Ulster. This later provided the basis for his 2012-15 Leverhulme-funded project on UK public audit.
  • On 3 March 2011, David Heald presented a seminar on 'The uses and abuses of transparency' at the York Management School, University of York.
  • On 7 February 2011, David Heald gave evidence to the Communities and Local Government Committee of the House of Commons on arrangements for local authority audit in England. This followed the August 2010 decision by the UK Government to abolish the Audit Commission. His written evidence can be found here. The evidence session was web-cast live and remains available here. The Committee's Report, which extensively quoted his evidence, is available here.

    2010

  • On 9 December 2010, David Heald was the discussant on the United Kingdom case study of historical episodes of fiscal adjustment, at the conference held in Washington DC by the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund. The conference was entitled 'Large Fiscal Adjustment Plans'. The papers were later published as Chipping Away at Public Debt: Sources of Failure and Keys to Success in Fiscal Adjustment (New York, John Wiley, 2011).
  • David Heald was a plenary session speaker on 'The uses and abuses of public sector transparency' at a conference in Rome on 2-3 December 2010. The conference, whose theme was 'Reforming the Public Sector - How to Make a Difference', was jointly hosted by the Italian National School of Government (SSPA) and the SDA Bocconi School of Management. The programme for the event can be viewed here, though some late changes had to be made because some speakers were unable to travel because of airport disruption due to exceptionally bad weather.
  • David Heald presented a paper on 'The transparency of public expenditure and its substitutes' to a workshop session at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the Utrecht School of Governance, held on 18-19 November 2010, the programme being available here. His revised paper was published in 2012 in a special issue of International Review of Administrative Sciences, under the title 'Why is transparency about public expenditure so elusive?' A professional translation was published in parallel as 'Pourquoi la transparence des depenses publiques est-elle si difficile a atteindre ?'
  • On 5 November 2010, David Heald contributed to a parallel session on 'The Economic Powers of Devolved Administrations' at the Irish-Scottish Forum on 'The Politics of Devolution'. This was held at the Scottish Parliament, and was organised by the AHRC Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies at the University of Aberdeen in association with Queen's University Belfast. The programme for the event can be viewed here.
  • On 3 November 2010, David Heald gave oral evidence on the effects of 2010 Spending Review to the Committee on Finance and Personnel of the Northern Ireland Assembly. His evidence starts 52 minutes into this recording. The Report of the Committee made extensive reference to his evidence. Together with the official transcript, the Report can be found here.
  • As part of Cardiff University's Wales Governance Centre's series of seminars on aspects of devolution, one was held on Thursday 13 May 2010, in the Council Chamber of the Glamorgan Building. The topic that day was the taxing and borrowing powers of the UK devolved administrations. David Heald was one of the speakers, alongside Cesar Colino of UNED (the Spanish counterpart of the Open University), an expert on the working of the devolved financing system in Spain. Alan Trench (Edinburgh University) acted as discussant on the two presentations.
  • On 29 March 2010, David Heald gave a seminar to doctoral students and staff at the University of Siena (Italy), summarising the research conducted with George Georgiou (University of Birmingham) on Whole of Government Accounts. The impressive poster for the seminar can be viewed here. This work is reported in the published Public Money & Management article and in the paper presented on 3 December 2009 at the 'Abacus Forum', held at the University of Sydney. The definitive version of the latter was later published in Abacus in December 2011, available here.
  • On 17 March 2010, David Heald chaired a lecture on the fringe of the CIPFA Scotland Conference. Professor John Baillie, Chair of the Accounts Commission, spoke on 'Inspectionand regulation post-Crerar - what are the changes ahead and how will they benefit and/or challenge the public services?'. This lecture was jointly organised by the Public Policy & Management Association and the CIPFA Scottish Branch, held in the council chamber of Dundee City Council.
  • On 7-8 January 2010, David Heald and Alasdair McLeod (Honorary Research Fellow, University of Aberdeen Business School) presented a paper on 'The Taxation and Borrowing Powers of the UK Devolved Administrations'. This conference was held at Merton College, Oxford, and was organised by the Political Studies Association's Territorial Politics Group.

    2009

  • David Heald presented his co-authored paper with George Georgiou (University of Birmingham) on 'The Macro-Fiscal Uses of the UK Whole of Government Account' at the 'Abacus Forum', held at the University of Sydney on 3 December 2009. The definitive version was later published in Abacus in December 2011, available here.
  • David Heald presented his co-authored paper with George Georgiou (University of Birmingham) on 'The Regulation of Accounting for Public-Private Partnerships' to the 65th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF), hosted on 13-16 August 2009 by the University of Pretoria and held at the International Conference Centre, Cape Town. After revision, this paper was published as 'The Substance of Accounting for Public-Private Partnerships' in Financial Accountability & Management (December 2011). Subsequently it won the prestigious John Perrin Prize, named after the journal's founding editor, for best paper in the 2011 volume.
  • On 20 May 2009, David Heald gave a seminar on 'The regulation and substance of PFI accounting' at the School of Management, University of Bath.
  • On 2 April 2009, David Heald gave a lecture at the University of Ulster on the topic of 'Should Northern Ireland wish the abolition of the Barnett formula?'.
  • At the CIPFA Scotland 2009 Annual Conference, held at the Edinburgh Conference Centre on 20 March 2009, David Heald took part in a panel session on 'Financial powers of Holyrood: A lever or barrier to economic growth'. His fellow panellists were Sir Kenneth Calman and Lord (David) Steel of Aikwood.

    2008

  • On 9 December 2008, David Heald participated in a Round Table on devolution finance. This was held at the Hilton Hotel, Cardiff and was organised by the (Holtham) Independent Commission on Funding & Finance for Wales, which had been established by the Welsh Assembly Government. The evidence he submitted to this Commission is available here.
  • David Heald took part in a seminar organised by the University of Glasgow's Law School on Monday 8 December 2008. This was in a series on Scotland's Constitutional Future and focuses on 'Devolution finance'. The other speakers were David Bell (University of Stirling), Rosa Greaves (University of Glasgow) and Richard Harris (University of Glasgow).
  • David Heald presented a paper by George Georgiou (Birmingham) and himself to a seminar in Siena (31 August - 2 September 2008) on developments in Whole of Government Accounts. This was organised by the Universities of Siena and Sydney. A revised version of their paper was published in 2009 in Public Money & Management, available here.
  • David Heald facilitated the Intra-Accountancy Institutes' PFI/PPP conference on 16 July 2008. This was hosted by the London Society of Chartered Accountants in the Great Hall of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The other speakers were practitioners involved in varying aspects of the Private Finance Initiative.
  • David Heald and George Georgiou (Birmingham) presented a paper on 'The regulation and substance of PPP accounting' to the 12th Annual Financial Reporting and Communication Conference. This was organised by Cardiff Business School and held in the University's Glamorgan Building on 3-4 July 2008.
  • David Heald spoke in the session on 'Looking beyond Barnett: options for financing devolution', at the Constitution Unit's 'Inside Devolution 2008' conference. This was held at the British Academy on 22 May 2008.

    2007

  • David Heald gave a presentation to the British Academy of Management's Research Methodology Special Interest Group on 18th May 2007 at Oxford Brookes University. This presentation was on 'Using management research to influence policy-makers'. A revised version was published in 2011 in Challenges and Controversies in Management Research, edited by Cathy Cassell (then Manchester) and Bill Lee (Sheffield).
  • David Heald was a discussant of papers on the public finances of Germany and China at the 2007 Banca d'Italia Public Finance Workshop, held at its conference centre in Perugia, 29-31 March. The Conference Proceedings were published in 2007.

    2006

  • The British Academy held a Panel Discussion on Monday 18 September 2006, to mark the publication of Transparency: The Key to Better Governance?, Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 135, 2006, Oxford University Press, edited by Christopher Hood and David Heald. The speakers were Onora O'Neill (then President of the British Academy and a contributor to the book), Deirdre Curtin (Utrecht School of Governance), and the two editors. Copies of the book can be purchased here.
  • David Heald presented a paper on 'Financing the Devolved Administrations', at the HM Treasury/ESRC seminar on 'The Economics of Devolution', held in the Churchill Room in the Treasury on 27 January 2006.

    2005

  • David Heald presented a paper on 'Fiscal sustainability: the case of the United Kingdom', at the conference on 'Long-term Budget Challenge: Public Finance in the G7'. This was held at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC on 2-4 June 2005, and co-sponsored by the Tower Center for Political Studies at the Southern Methodist University.
  • David Heald and Christopher Hood (All Souls, Oxford) organised a workshop on 'Transparency: The Word and the Doctrines', on 14 January 2005 at the British Academy. This was co-sponsored by the British Academy and the ESRC Public Services Report Programme. Subsequently, the papers presented at the workshop have been published in Transparency: The Key to Better Governance? (Proceedings of the British Academy Volume 135, 2006), edited by David Heald and Christopher Hood. David Heald contributed two chapters to this book: Chapter 2 on 'Varieties of transparency'; and Chapter 4 on 'Transparency as an instrumental value'.

    2004

  • David Heald presented the research results from his ESRC Devolution and Constitutional Change Research Programme project on devolution finance at an ESRC/Association of Regional Laboratories conference at Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham on 16 November 2004.
  • David Heald gave his inaugural lecture at the University of Sheffield on 19 May 2004, on the topic of 'Gordon Brown's Billions: the Dilemmas of Spending Review 2004'.

    2003

  • David Heald and Alasdair McLeod presented the findings of their ESRC Devolution Finance project to a seminar jointly convened in Edinburgh on 17 December 2003 by the Scottish Executive and the ESRC Devolution and Constitutional Change programme.
  • On behalf of David Heald and himself, Alasdair McLeod gave a keynote paper at the Regional Studies Association's 2003 Annual Conference, the topic of which was 'Economic Governance Post-Devolution: Differentiation or Convergence'. This was held in London on Friday 21 November 2003. It formed the origin of their published article providing a full numerical analysis of the operation of the Barnett formula.
  • David Heald and Alasdair McLeod gave a paper on 'Scotland's fiscal relationships with England and the United Kingdom', at the second part ('Present and Future') of the 'Union of the Crowns' seminar held in Edinburgh on 6-7 November 2003. This event was jointly organised by the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Union of the Crowns of England and Scotland. The first part ('Past') took place in London in September 2003. The overall theme was 'England and Scotland in the Union from 1603: Anglo-Scottish Relations - Past, Present, Future'. Their paper was subsequently published as 'Scotland's fiscal relationships with England and the United Kingdom', in W.L. Miller (ed.), Anglo-Scottish Relations from 1900 to Devolution and Beyond, Proceedings of the British Academy Vol. 128, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 95-112.
  • David Heald was a discussant at one of the sessions of the Banca d'Italia's 5th Workshop on Public Finance, the subject of which was 'Tax Policy'. This Workshop was held in Perugia on 3-5 April 2003.
  • David Heald spoke at a seminar, organised by the then Northern Ireland Economic Council held in Belfast on 13 March 2003, about the findings of his Report on the funding of the Northern Ireland Assembly. The related Policy Research Brief is available here.
  • David Heald gave a seminar on 'Funding the Northern Ireland Assembly' on 12 March 2003 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ulster, Jordanstown. This drew upon his Report for the Northern Ireland Economic Council, which was published on 3 March. The related Policy Research Brief is available here.

    2002

  • David Heald gave a public lecture ('Financing Devolution: What Should Follow Barnett?') on 20 November 2002 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, as part of the series (Has Devolution Delivered?) organised by the David Hume Institute. After the lecture he appeared with Andrew Wilson MSP (then Scottish National Party Spokesperson on Economy, Enterprise & Lifelong Learning) on BBC Radio Scotland's Politics Tonight.
  • David Heald gave a seminar on 'Fiscal Transparency: Spending Reviews, VFM and the Barnett Formula' on 4 October 2002 at the Conference of the Northern Ireland Civil Service Economist Group, held at the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle, County Down.
  • David Heald took part in a session on 'Transport Financing: A Comparison of Available Options' on 19 September 2002, at the Scottish Transport Studies Group's conference on 'Transport Devolution and Integration: Comparing Objectives, Financing and Delivery', held in Glasgow.
  • David Heald presented a paper on 'Beyond Barnett? Funding Devolution' at a seminar organised by the Institute for Public Policy Research in Edinburgh on 18 April 2002. A copy of the book chapter based on that paper appears here.
  • David Heald presented a paper on 'Fiscal transparency: concepts, measurement and UK practice' to the Department of Accounting & Finance, University of Manchester, on 27 February 2002 (a revised version was published in Public Administration, and appears here).
  • David Heald and Alasdair McLeod presented papers on 'Fiscal equalisation' and 'Revenue raising and tax sharing' in Birmingham on 18-19 January 2002. This work was later published in a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies, the article being available here.
  • 2001

  • David Heald presented a paper at the International Seminar on 'Accounting, Finance and Management Control in Public Services', organised by the Open University Business School and held in Milton Keynes on 14 November 2001. A revised version of this paper was published in 2003 as 'Fiscal transparency: concepts, measurement and UK practice'.
  • David Heald presented a paper at Glasgow Caledonian University on 'Financing UK Devolution in Practice' in the Finance seminar series run by the Division of Accounting.
  • David Heald was scheduled to present his country report on the United Kingdom at a symposium organised by the Quebec Government's Commission sur le déséquilibre fiscal. It was to be held in Quebec City on 13-14 September 2001, but was cancelled at the last minute because of the international security situation. The French version of his paper appears here and the English version appears here.
  • David Heald presented his initial views about how the financing of devolved government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would affect England and the English regions, at a seminar on 'Researching England', held on 26 March 2001 at the University of Birmingham. This seminar was jointly organised by the Local and Regional Government Research Programme (Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions) and the Economic and Social Research Council's Research Programme on Devolution and Constitutional Change.