United Kingdom
His Majesty's Paymaster General
Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Incumbent
John Glen
since 13 November 2023
Cabinet Office
StylePaymaster General
The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
AppointerThe King
(on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Inaugural holderHenry Parnell
Formation27 April 1836
WebsiteOfficial website

His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The incumbent Paymaster General is John Glen.

History

Until 1939 the Office of the Paymaster General was at 36 Whitehall (an extension of Horse Guards formerly occupied by the Paymaster to the Forces).[1]

The post was created in 1836 by the merger of the positions of the offices of the Paymaster of the Forces (1661–1836), the Treasurer of the Navy (1546–1835), the Paymaster and Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital (responsible for Army pensions) (1681–1835) and the Treasurer of the Ordnance (1670–1835).

Initially, the Paymaster General only had responsibilities in relation to the armed services but in 1848 two more offices were merged into that of Paymaster General: the Paymaster of Exchequer Bills (1723–1848) and the Paymaster of the Civil Service (1834–1848), the latter followed by its Irish counterpart in 1861. They thus became 'the principal paying agent of the government and the banker for all government departments except the revenue departments and the National Debt Office'.[2]

From 1848 to 1868, the post was held concurrently with that of Vice-President of the Board of Trade.

The longest-serving holder of the post was Dawn Primarolo, whose portfolio covered HM Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue (which during her tenure became merged as HM Revenue and Customs) and who served from 1999 to 2007.

Role

Today, the Paymaster General is usually a minister without portfolio available for any duties which the government of the day may designate. The post may be combined with another office, or may be left unfilled.

Though the Paymaster General was titular head of the Paymaster General's Office, their executive functions were delegated to the Assistant Paymaster General, a permanent civil servant who (though acting in the name of the Paymaster General) was answerable to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.[2]

Office of HM Paymaster General

The Paymaster General was formerly in nominal charge (and at one time in actual charge) of the Office of HM Paymaster General[3] (OPG), which held accounts at the Bank of England on behalf of government departments and selected other public bodies. Funds which were made available from the Consolidated Fund were then channelled into OPG accounts, from where they were used by the relevant body. OPG operated a full range of accounts and banking transaction services, including cheque and credit, BACS and CHAPS services for its customers via an electronic banking system. Integration of OPG accounts held with commercial banks was provided by the private company Xafinity Paymaster which is now part of the Equiniti group.

However, in 2008, the government announced that the Office of the Paymaster General would be incorporated into a new body, the Government Banking Service,[4] which also provides banking operations for HM Revenue & Customs and National Savings and Investments. Following the Bank of England's decision to withdraw from providing retail banking services,[5] retail banking and payment services for the GBS are provided by a range of financial institutions including Barclays, Citibank, NatWest, and Worldpay,[6] although the Bank of England still plays a role in managing the government's higher level accounts.[7]

List of paymasters general

19th century

20th century

Paymaster General Term of office Concurrent office(s) Political party Prime Minister
Frederick Lindemann
Viscount Cherwell		 30 October 1951 11 November 1953 Conservative Winston Churchill
(III)
George Douglas-Hamilton
Earl of Selkirk		 11 November 1953 20 October 1955
Office vacant 20 October 1955 18 October 1956 Anthony Eden
(Eden)
Walter Monckton
MP for Bristol West		 18 October 1956 16 January 1957
Reginald Maudling
MP for Barnet		 16 January 1957 14 October 1959 Harold Macmillan
(I)
Percy Mills
Viscount Mills		 14 October 1959 9 October 1961 Harold Macmillan
(II)
Henry Brooke
MP for Hampstead		 9 October 1961 13 July 1962 Chief Secretary to the Treasury
John Boyd-Carpenter
MP for Kingston-upon-Thames		 13 July 1962 19 October 1964 Chief Secretary to the Treasury Alec Douglas-Home
(Douglas-Home)
George Wigg
MP for Dudley		 19 October 1964 12 November 1967 Labour Harold Wilson
(I & II)
Office vacant 12 November 1967 6 April 1968 Harold Wilson
(II)
Edward Shackleton
Baron Shackleton		 6 April 1968 1 November 1968
Judith Hart
MP for Clydesdale		 1 November 1968 6 October 1969
Harold Lever
MP for Manchester Cheetham		 6 October 1969 23 June 1970
David Eccles
Viscount Eccles		 23 June 1970 2 December 1973 Minister for the Arts Conservative Edward Heath
(Heath)
Maurice Macmillan
MP for Farnham		 2 December 1973 4 March 1974
Edmund Dell
MP for Birkenhead		 4 March 1974 10 September 1976 Labour Harold Wilson
(III & IV)
Shirley Williams
MP for Hitchin		 10 September 1976 4 May 1979 Secretary of State for Education and Science James Callaghan
(Callaghan)
Angus Maude
MP for Stratford-on-Avon		 4 May 1979 5 January 1981 Conservative Margaret Thatcher
(I)
Francis Pym
MP for Cambridgeshire		 5 January 1981 14 September 1981 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
(5 January 1981 – 14 September 1981)

Leader of the House of Commons
(5 January 1981 – 5 April 1982)
Cecil Parkinson
MP for South Hertfordshire		 14 September 1981 11 June 1983 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
(6 April 1982 – 11 June 1983)
Office vacant 11 June 1983 11 September 1984 Margaret Thatcher
(II)
John Gummer
MP for Suffolk Coastal		 11 September 1984 1 September 1985
Kenneth Clarke
MP for Rushcliffe		 2 September 1985 13 July 1987 Minister of State for Employment
Peter Brooke
MP for City of London and Westminster South		 13 July 1987 24 July 1989 Margaret Thatcher
(III)
Malcolm Sinclair
Earl of Caithness		 25 July 1989 14 July 1990
Richard Ryder
MP for Mid Norfolk		 14 July 1990 28 November 1990 John Major
(I)
John Ganzoni
Baron Belstead		 28 November 1990 11 April 1992 Minister of State for Northern Ireland
John Cope
MP for Northavon		 14 April 1992 20 July 1994 John Major
(lI)
David Heathcoat-Amory
MP for Wells		 20 July 1994 20 July 1996
David Willetts
MP for Havant		 20 July 1996 21 November 1996
Michael Bates
MP for Langbaurgh		 21 November 1996 2 May 1997 Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
(17 October 1995 – 11 December 1996)
Geoffrey Robinson
MP for Coventry North West		 2 May 1997 23 December 1998 Labour Tony Blair
(I)

21st century

Paymaster General Term of office Concurrent office(s) Political party Prime Minister
Dawn Primarolo
MP for Bristol South		 4 January 1999 28 June 2007 Labour Tony Blair
(I, II, III)
Tessa Jowell
MP for Dulwich and West Norwood		 28 June 2007 11 May 2010 Minister for the Olympics
Minister for the Cabinet Office
(from 5 June 2009)
Minister for London
(until 3 October 2008; from 5 June 2009)		 Gordon Brown
(Brown)
Francis Maude
MP for Horsham		 12 May 2010 11 May 2015 Minister for the Cabinet Office Conservative David Cameron
(I)
Matt Hancock
MP for West Suffolk		 11 May 2015 14 July 2016 David Cameron
(II)
Ben Gummer
MP for Ipswich		 14 July 2016 13 June 2017 Theresa May
(I)
Mel Stride
MP for Central Devon		 13 June 2017 23 May 2019 Financial Secretary to the Treasury Theresa May
(II)
Jesse Norman
MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire		 23 May 2019 24 July 2019
Oliver Dowden
MP for Hertsmere		 24 July 2019 13 February 2020 Minister for the Cabinet Office Boris Johnson
(I & II)
Penny Mordaunt
MP for Portsmouth North		 13 February 2020 16 September 2021 Boris Johnson
(II)
Michael Ellis
MP for Northampton North		 16 September 2021 6 September 2022 Minister for the Cabinet Office
(from 8 February 2022)
Edward Argar
MP for Charnwood		 6 September 2022 14 October 2022 Minister for the Cabinet Office Liz Truss
(Truss)
Chris Philp
MP for Croydon South		 14 October 2022 25 October 2022
Jeremy Quin
MP for Horsham		 25 October 2022 13 November 2023 Rishi Sunak
(Sunak)
John Glen
MP for Salisbury		 13 November 2023 Incumbent

List of shadow paymasters general

Shadow Paymaster general Term of office Party Opposition Leader
Richard Ottaway 1 June 2000 1 June 2001 Conservative Hague
Stephen O'Brien 1 June 2002 1 June 2003 Conservative Duncan Smith
Andrew Tyrie 1 June 2004 1 June 2005 Conservative Howard
Mark Francois 10 May 2005 3 July 2007 Conservative
Cameron
Jack Dromey 14 May 2021 4 December 2021 Labour Starmer
Fleur Anderson 4 December 2021 4 September 2023 Labour
Jonathan Ashworth 4 September 2023 Incumbent Labour

References

  1. ↑ Roper, Michael (1998). The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964. Kew, UK: Public Record Office.
  2. 1 2 This article contains OGL licensed text This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence v3.0: "Records of the Paymaster General's Office and predecessors". The National Archives. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  3. ↑ Gater, G.H.; Wheeler, E.P. (1935). "Office of the Paymaster-General". British History Online. London: London County Council. pp. 17–27. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  4. ↑ "Press Release: Angela Eagle launches the Government Banking Service". HM Treasury. 22 May 2008. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010.
  5. ↑ "Important changes to banking arrangements for the Insolvency Services Account". insolvency.gov.uk. The Insolvency Service. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010.
  6. ↑ "Government Banking". gov.uk.
  7. ↑ "Government Banking Service" (PDF). Department of Works and Pensions.
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