Post: | His Majesty's Paymaster General |
Insignia: | Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government) (2022).svg |
Insigniasize: | 140px |
Insigniacaption: | Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government |
Department: | Cabinet Office |
Incumbent: | Nick Thomas-Symonds |
Incumbentsince: | 8 July 2024 |
Style: | Paymaster General The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth) |
Appointer: | The King |
Inaugural: | Henry Parnell |
Formation: | 27 April 1836 |
His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The position is currently held by Nick Thomas-Symonds of the Labour Party.
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'.
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.
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.
The Paymaster General was formerly in nominal charge (and at one time in actual charge) of the Office of HM Paymaster General[1] (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,[2] 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,[3] retail banking and payment services for the GBS are provided by a range of financial institutions including Barclays, Citibank, NatWest, and Worldpay,[4] although the Bank of England still plays a role in managing the government's higher level accounts.[5]
Paymaster General | Term of office | Concurrent office(s) | Political party | Prime Minister | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Frederick Lindemann | 30 October 1951 | 11 November 1953 | Conservative | Winston Churchill | |||||
George Douglas-Hamilton | 11 November 1953 | 20 October 1955 | |||||||
Office vacant | 20 October 1955 | 18 October 1956 | Anthony Eden | ||||||
Walter Monckton | 18 October 1956 | 16 January 1957 | |||||||
Reginald Maudling | 16 January 1957 | 14 October 1959 | Harold Macmillan | ||||||
Percy Mills | 14 October 1959 | 9 October 1961 | Harold Macmillan | ||||||
Henry Brooke | 9 October 1961 | 13 July 1962 | Chief Secretary to the Treasury | ||||||
John Boyd-Carpenter | 13 July 1962 | 19 October 1964 | Chief Secretary to the Treasury | Alec Douglas-Home | |||||
George Wigg | 19 October 1964 | 12 November 1967 | Labour | Harold Wilson | |||||
Office vacant | 12 November 1967 | 6 April 1968 | Harold Wilson | ||||||
Edward Shackleton | 6 April 1968 | 1 November 1968 | |||||||
Judith Hart | 1 November 1968 | 6 October 1969 | |||||||
Harold Lever | 6 October 1969 | 23 June 1970 | |||||||
David Eccles | 23 June 1970 | 2 December 1973 | Minister for the Arts | Conservative | Edward Heath | ||||
Maurice Macmillan | 2 December 1973 | 4 March 1974 | |||||||
Edmund Dell | 4 March 1974 | 10 September 1976 | Labour | Harold Wilson | |||||
Shirley Williams | 10 September 1976 | 4 May 1979 | Secretary of State for Education and Science | James Callaghan | |||||
Angus Maude | 4 May 1979 | 5 January 1981 | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher | |||||
Francis Pym | 5 January 1981 | 14 September 1981 | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | ||||||
Cecil Parkinson | 14 September 1981 | 11 June 1983 | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | ||||||
Office vacant | 11 June 1983 | 11 September 1984 | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||
John Gummer | 11 September 1984 | 1 September 1985 | |||||||
Kenneth Clarke | 2 September 1985 | 13 July 1987 | Minister of State for Employment | ||||||
Peter Brooke | 13 July 1987 | 24 July 1989 | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||
Malcolm Sinclair | 25 July 1989 | 14 July 1990 | |||||||
Richard Ryder | 14 July 1990 | 28 November 1990 | John Major | ||||||
John Ganzoni | 28 November 1990 | 11 April 1992 | Minister of State for Northern Ireland | ||||||
John Cope | 14 April 1992 | 20 July 1994 | John Major | ||||||
David Heathcoat-Amory | 20 July 1994 | 20 July 1996 | |||||||
David Willetts | 20 July 1996 | 21 November 1996 | |||||||
Michael Bates | 21 November 1996 | 2 May 1997 | Lord Commissioner of the Treasury | ||||||
Geoffrey Robinson | 2 May 1997 | 23 December 1998 | Labour | Tony Blair |
Paymaster General | Term of office | Concurrent office(s) | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dawn Primarolo | 4 January 1999 | 28 June 2007 | Labour | Tony Blair | ||||
Tessa Jowell | 28 June 2007 | 11 May 2010 | Minister for the Olympics Minister for the Cabinet Office Minister for London | Gordon Brown | ||||
Francis Maude | 12 May 2010 | 11 May 2015 | Minister for the Cabinet Office | Conservative | David Cameron | |||
Matt Hancock | 11 May 2015 | 14 July 2016 | David Cameron | |||||
Ben Gummer | 14 July 2016 | 13 June 2017 | Theresa May | |||||
Mel Stride | 13 June 2017 | 23 May 2019 | Financial Secretary to the Treasury | Theresa May | ||||
Jesse Norman | 23 May 2019 | 24 July 2019 | ||||||
Oliver Dowden | 24 July 2019 | 13 February 2020 | Minister for the Cabinet Office | Boris Johnson | ||||
Penny Mordaunt | 13 February 2020 | 16 September 2021 | Boris Johnson | |||||
Michael Ellis | 16 September 2021 | 6 September 2022 | Minister for the Cabinet Office | |||||
Edward Argar | 6 September 2022 | 14 October 2022 | Minister for the Cabinet Office | Liz Truss | ||||
Chris Philp | 14 October 2022 | 25 October 2022 | ||||||
Jeremy Quin | 25 October 2022 | 13 November 2023 | Rishi Sunak | |||||
John Glen | 13 November 2023 | 5 July 2024 | ||||||
Nick Thomas-Symonds | 8 July 2024 | Labour | Keir Starmer |
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 | 5 July 2024 | Labour | ||||
John Glen | 8 July 2024 | Incumbent | Conservative | Sunak |