Paymaster General

The Paymaster General holds a ministerial office in the UK government.

Assignments and history

He is responsible for the Office of HM Paymaster General (OPG), which has authority over the accounts of the government and other major public bodies with the Bank of England . The Government Consolidation Fund is divided between the accounts of the individual ministries and bodies. The Office of the Paymaster General also operates a number of other government account and transaction services, such as checks and credit transactions as well as other procedures such as Bankers' Automated Clearing Services (BACS) and Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) in the electronic processing system.

If the office of Paymaster General is exercised by a minister in the Treasury ( HM Treasury ), this minister takes third place within the Treasury after the Treasury Chancellor and the Chief Secretary of the Treasury. The Treasury Secretary of Finance, Economy, Treasury and Trade are subordinate.

The office was established in 1836 after the merger of the paymaster of the army , the treasurer of the navy , the paymaster and treasurer of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and the treasurer of the supply system. Between 1848 and 1868 the office was linked to that of Vice President of the Board of Trade .

The longest tenured Paymaster General was Dawn Primarolo from 1999 to 2007. The current Paymaster General is Penny Mordaunt .

The Office of HM Paymaster General became part of the newly founded Government Banking Service in April 2008 , which in turn belongs to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

List of previous Paymasters General

Sir Henry Parnell, Bt 1836-1841 Edward John Stanley 1841 Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet 1841–1845 William Bingham Baring 1845-1846 Thomas Babington Macaulay 1846-1848 The Earl Granville 1848-1852 The Lord Stanley of Alderley 1852 The Lord Colchester 1852 The Lord Stanley of Alderley 1853-1855 Edward Pleydell-Bouverie 1855 Robert Lowe 1855-1858 The Earl of Donoughmore 1858-1859 Lord Lovaine 1859 James Wilson 1859 William Francis Cowper 1859-1860 Sir William Hutt 1860-1865 George Joachim Goschen 1865–1866 William Monsell 1866 Sir Stephen Cave 1866-1868 The Earl of Dufferin 1868-1872 Hugh Childers 1872-1873 William Patrick Adam 1873–1874 Sir Stephen Cave 1874-1880 David Plunket 1880 The Lord Wolverton 1880-1885 The Earl Beauchamp 1885-1886 The Lord Thurlow 1886 The Earl Beauchamp 1886-1887 The Earl Brownlow 1887-1889 The Earl of Jersey 1889-1890 The Lord Windsor 1890-1892 Charles Seale-Hayne 1892-1895 The Earl of Hopetoun 1895-1899 The Duke of Marlborough 1899-1902 Savile Crossley, 1st Baron Somerleyton 1902-1905 Richard Causton, 1st Baron Southwark 1905-1910 The Lord Ashby St. Ledgers 1910-1912 The Lord Strachie 1912-1915 The Lord Newton 1915-1916 Arthur Henderson 1916 Sir Joseph Compton-Rickett 1916-1919 Sir John Tudor Walters 1919-1922 Office not occupied 1922–1923 Neville Chamberlain 1923 Sir William Joynson-Hicks 1923 Archibald Boyd-Carpenter 1923-1924 Harry Gosling 1924 Office not occupied 1924–1925 The Duke of Sutherland 1925-1928 The Earl of Onslow 1928-1929 The Lord Arnold 1929-1931 Sir John Tudor Walters 1931 The Lord Rochester 1931-1935 The Lord Hutchison 1935-1938

The Earl of Munster 1938-1939 The Earl Winterton 1939 Office vacant 1939–1940 Viscount Cranborne 1940 Office not occupied 1940–1941 The Lord Hankey 1941-1942 Sir William Jowitt 1942 The Lord Cherwell 1942-1945 Office not occupied 1945–1946 Arthur Greenwood 1946-1947 Hilary Marquand 1947-1948 The Viscount Addison 1948-1949 The Lord Macdonald of Gwaenysgor 1949–1951 The Lord Cherwell 1951-1953 The Earl of Selkirk 1953-1955 Office not occupied 1955–1956 Sir Walter Monckton 1956–1957 Reginald Maudling 1957-1959 The Lord Mills 1959-1961 Henry Brooke 1961–1962 John Boyd-Carpenter 1962-1964 George Wigg 1964-1967 Office vacant 1967–1968 The Lord Shackleton 1968 Judith Hart 1968–1969 Harold Lever 1969-1970 The Viscount Eccles 1970-1973 Maurice Macmillan 1973-1974 Edmund Dell 1974-1976 Shirley Williams 1976-1979 Angus Maude 1979-1981 Francis Pym 1981 Cecil Parkinson 1981-1983 Office vacant 1983–1984 John Selwyn Gummer 1984–1985 Kenneth Clarke 1985-1987 Peter Brooke 1987-1989 The Earl of Caithness 1989-1990 Richard Ryder 1990 The Lord Belstead 1990-1992 Sir John Cope 1992-1994 David Heathcoat-Amory 1994-1996 David Willetts 1996 Michael Bates 1996-1997 Geoffrey Robinson 1997-1998 Dawn Primarolo 1999-2007 Tessa Jowell 2007-2010 Francis Maude 2010-2015 Matt Hancock 2015-2016 Ben Gummer 2016–2017 Mel Stride 2017-2019 Jesse Norman 2019 Oliver Dowden 2019-2020 Penny Mordaunt since 2020

Web links

• BRITISH HISTORY: Office of the Paymaster General

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Introduction to Government Banking Service. HM Revenue & Customs, accessed August 23, 2011 .