Sam Beckett
Biography
Sam was appointed as Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury in May 2023.
Prior to this, she was Second Permanent Secretary at the ONS and the Deputy Chief Executive at the UK Statistics Authority in September 2020. In this role, Sam looked after Economic, Social and Environmental Statistics, alongside corporate services. Between 2018 and 2023, she was also joint head of the Government Economic Service. Directly prior to ONS, she was acting Permanent Secretary at BEIS, where, among other things, she oversaw the COVID-19 response. Prior to that she was the Director General at BEIS responsible for the Department’s broad and complex EU-exit preparations.
Sam has over 25 years’ experience in BEIS, Cabinet Office and HM Treasury in roles spanning micro and macro-economics, strategy, policy and corporate services delivery. Sam has a degree from New College, Oxford and an MSc in Economics from the LSE. She was made a Companion of the Bath (CB) in 2020.
Chief Economic Adviser, Head of the GES and Second Permanent Secretary
Chief Economic Adviser
Responsibilities include:
- Ensuring the delivery of HM Treasury’s work programme, in particular supporting the Government’s objectives to promote macroeconomic stability and maintain confidence in the macro policy framework: to promote sustainable economic growth and to ensure stable and sustainable tax receipts to fund government spending in the least distortive way
- Leading the Treasury’s relationships with the monetary policy side of Bank of England, IMF and OECD on UK Surveillance, gilt investment community and wider economics community
- Co-Chairing the G20 Framework Working Group, which discusses global macroeconomic issues of current relevance and monitors global risks and uncertainties, and possible areas of policy co-ordination, aimed at promoting Strong, Sustainable, Balanced, and Inclusive Growth (SSBIG) across the G20
Head of the Government Economic Service
Responsibilities include:
- Leading the GES community to champion the use of economics and support economists across government
- Chairing the GES Corporate Board, helping to direct core policy decisions and leading discussion and debate among Chief Economists
- Being the key spokesperson for the economics profession across government and to external audiences
Second Permanent Secretary
The role of the Second Permanent Secretary is to support the Permanent Secretary in the running and oversight of the department.