Jeremy Peat

Jeremy Peat (born March 1945) is a banker and is the BBC National Trustee for Scotland.

Criticism

Peat was subject to severe public criticism in July 2008 for claiming over £30,000 in expenses as a BBC Trustee in one year - funded by the licence fee payer, and the equivalent of around 220 licence fees. This was significantly higher than any other Trustees. Peat spent £9,800 on flights and £12,600 on hotels in a single year. The average cost of his flights was £235. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2459158/BBC-Trustees-claim-expenses-for-watching-Sky-television.html]

Peat was also one of four Trustees who hosted a group of "opinion formers and stakeholders" at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, at a cost of over £20,000 of licence fee payers' money. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Trust]

Career

Peat trained as an economist at Bristol University and University College London. He worked as an economist for various UK Government departments - including a brief spell at HM Treasury and eight years at the Scottish Office - and also carried his economic toolkit to assignments overseas, to Bangkok in 1972-74 and Botswana in 1980-84. He was Group Chief Economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, and from 1 July 2005 became the Director of the David Hume Institute.

Peat is Vice Chair of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland. He lives in Roslin Glen, Midlothian, and is a member of the Project Committee for the conservation of Rosslyn Chapel.He is married with two daughters.