Paymaster General

History

The post was created by the Paymaster General Act 1835 (5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 35) 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 two more offices were merged into that of Paymaster General by the Paymaster General Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict. c. 55): the Paymaster of Exchequer Bills (1723–1848) and the Paymaster of the Civil Service (1834–1848), the latter followed by its Irish counterpart by the Public Works (Ireland) Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 71). 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.

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.

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 (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, 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, retail banking and payment services for the GBS are provided by a range of financial institutions including Barclays, Citibank, NatWest, and Worldpay, although the Bank of England still plays a role in managing the government's higher level accounts.

List of paymasters general

19th century

Sir Henry Parnell, 4th Baronet 1836–1841

Edward Stanley 1841

Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet 1841–1845

Bingham Baring 1845–1846

Thomas Babington Macaulay 1846–1848

Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville 1848–1852

Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley 1852

Charles Abbot, 2nd Baron Colchester 1852

Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley 1853–1855

Edward Pleydell-Bouverie 1855

Robert Lowe 1855–1858

Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 4th Earl of Donoughmore 1858–1859

Algernon Percy, Lord Lovaine 1859

James Wilson 1859

William Cowper 1859–1860

William Hutt 1860–1865

George Goschen 1865–1866

William Monsell 1866

Stephen Cave 1866–1868

Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Earl of Dufferin 1868–1872

Hugh Childers 1872–1873

William Adam 1873–1874

20th century

Savile Crossley 1902–1905

Richard Causton (1st Baron Southwark after 13 July 1910) 1905–1910

Ivor Guest, 1st Baron Ashby St Ledgers 1910–1912

Edward Strachey, 1st Baron Strachie 1912–1915

Thomas Legh, 2nd Baron Newton 1915–1916

Arthur Henderson 1916

Joseph Compton-Rickett 1916–1919

Tudor Walters 1919–1922

Office vacant 1922–1923

Neville Chamberlain 1923

William Joynson-Hicks 1923

Archibald Boyd-Carpenter 1923–1924

Harry Gosling 1924

Office vacant 1924–1925

George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland 1925–1928

Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow 1928–1929

Sydney Arnold 1929–1931

Office vacant 1931

Tudor Walters 1931

Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester 1931–1935

Robert Hutchison, 1st Baron Hutchison of Montrose 1935–1938

Geoffrey FitzClarence, 5th Earl of Munster 1938–1939