His Majesty's Treasury

His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, taxation, state infrastructure, and economic growth. It is led by the chancellor of the exchequer, currently Rachel Reeves since 5 July 2024. The Treasury's main offices are located in London and Darlington, with additional offices in Edinburgh and Norwich. It is one of the smallest government departments in terms of staff numbers, but widely considered the most powerful.

History

The origins of the Treasury of England have been traced by some to an individual known as Henry the Treasurer, a servant to King William the Conqueror. This claim is based on an entry in the Domesday Book showing the individual Henry "the treasurer" as a landowner in Winchester, where the royal treasure was stored.

The UK Treasury traces its origins to the Treasury of the Kingdom of England, founded by 1126, in the reign of King Henry I. The Treasury emerged from the Royal Household. It was where the king kept his treasures, such as in The King's Chamber. The head of the Treasury was called the Lord Treasurer. Starting in Tudor times, the Lord Treasurer became one of the chief officers of state, and competed with the Lord Chancellor for the principal place. Thomas Cromwell transformed the financial administration of the country, restoring authority to the Exchequer and making the King's Chamber, of central importance under Henry VII, back into a small spending department overseeing the Royal Household. The fact that Cromwell had a key post in the old Chamber system as well as being Chancellor of the Exchequer shows how he did this. For the majority of the medieval period the office of the Treasury was within the Exchequer (responsible for managing the royal revenue in addition to collecting and issuing money). As is often the case, wars are expensive and in 1433 war with France led to a deficit of £30,000 – the equivalent of over £100 billion today. Money that the Treasury received was recorded by using tallies. These were sticks with notches marked on them according to the amount of money involved. The stick was cut in two and one half given to the Sheriff as receipt for the money. They were in use until 1834 when a fire destroyed the Palace of Westminster. By 1584, the deficit had been turned into a surplus equivalent to one year's revenue. Monarchs tended to bypass the Exchequer because of its ineffectiveness until it was reformed by Lord Treasurer Winchester and his successor, Lord Burghley, under Elizabeth I.

In contrast, the Stuarts failed to enforce limits on inflation, war, corruption and extravagant tendencies and were forced into debt again. In 1667, King Charles II was responsible for appointing George Downing, the builder of Downing Street, to radically reform the Treasury and the collection of taxes. The Treasury was first put in commission (placed under the control of several people instead of only one) in May or June 1660. The first commissioners were the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Ashley, (Sir) W. Coventry, (Sir) J. Duncomb, and (Sir) T. Clifford. From the middle of the 17th century the need for a national bank became pressing. England and, in particular, London was greatly changing due to fast expansion of The Empire's trade, not least N.America, but also entrepot trade that grew to over one third of trade and with Continental Europe, however, what was needed was a "fund of money," or a term familiar today, but by which is really meant either precious metals or 'hard' currency such as US dollars mainly that grew in importance after WW1 to pay external trade bills i.e. questions of financial liquidity or circulation needed to maintain and grow the nation's national income and trade, but above all to honour the nation's foreign obligations. Failures to do so can lead to casus belli.

The early 1700s saw the meteoric rise of the banking and financial markets, with the emerging stock market revolving around government funds. The ability to raise money by means of creating debt through the issue of bills and bonds heralded the beginning of the National Debt. Improved controls over public spending ensured that creditors were more willing to lend money to the government. By the 1730s an early version of the public spending survey and the annual Budget had been established. In its evolution the Treasury had to learn some valuable lessons. In 1711, the Treasury established a scheme whereby it secured government debt by the authorisation of its subscription into the capital of the South Sea Company, with government creditors in return holding stock in the company. After 1714, the Treasury was always in commission. The commissioners were referred to as the Lords of the Treasury and were given a number based on their seniority. In 1720 the South Sea bubble burst and thousands of investors were affected; such was the outrage that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was sent to the Tower of London. Eventually the First Lord of the Treasury came, however, to be seen as the natural head of government, and from Robert Walpole on, the holder of the office became known, unofficially, as the Prime Minister. Until 1827, the First Lord of the Treasury, when a commoner, also held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, while if the First Lord was a peer, the Second Lord usually served as Chancellor. Since 1827, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has always been Second Lord of the Treasury.

If important lessons were learnt that the National Debt (and public finances) require prudent management, when the Exchequer was abolished in 1833, HM Treasury became the ministerial department under the Chancellor of the Exchequer. When the Treasury was under commission, junior Lords were each paid £1,600 a year. It is insensible to consider the Treasury's history without the Bank of England, set up in the 17th century. The argument for England's bank grew after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 when William of Orange and Queen Mary ascended to England's throne. London-based Scottish entrepreneur, William Paterson proposed a "Bank of England" with a "fund for perpetual Interest" (not yet bonds or bills) that was passed by Parliament, supported by Charles Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Michael Godfrey, another leading City merchant. The public were invited to invest subscriptions totalling £1.2 million forming the initial capital stock onward loaned to the Government in return for a Royal Charter. At the same time the National Debt was born, paper money came into existence.

Ministers

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Although the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland had been united by the Acts of Union 1800, the exchequers of the two kingdoms were not consolidated until 1817 under the Consolidated Fund Act 1816 ( 56 Geo. 3. c. 98). For the holders of the Irish office before this date, see Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland.

Current Treasury Ministers

As of 14 January 2025, the Treasury Ministers are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold:

Timeline

1817–2020

Whips

Some of the government whips are also associated in name with the Treasury: the Chief Whip is nominally Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury and traditionally had an office in 12 Downing Street. Some of the other whips are nominally Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, though they are all members of the House of Commons. Being a whip is a party, rather than a government, position; the appointments to the Treasury are sinecure positions which allow the whips to be paid ministerial salaries. This has led to the Government front bench in the Commons being known as the Treasury Bench. However, since the whips no longer have any effective ministerial roles in the Treasury, they are usually not listed as Treasury ministers.

Permanent secretaries

The position of Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is generally regarded as the second most influential in the British Civil Service; two recent incumbents have gone on to be Cabinet Secretary, the only post outranking it.

From October 2022, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is James Bowler and there are two Second Permanent Secretaries: Catherine Little and Beth Russell. The previous Permanent Secretary, Sir Tom Scholar, was sacked by Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and Prime Minister Liz Truss shortly after they took office.

Guidance

The Treasury publishes cross-government guidance including ''Managing Public Money'' and ''The Green Book: Central Government Guidance on appraisal and evaluation'', current version dated 2020.H M Treasury
The Green Book: Central Government Guidance on appraisal and evaluation
current version dated 2020, accessed 19 December 2021 ''Managing Public Money'' includes a definition of "value for money" and sets out the responsibilities of an Accounting Officer within central government: The Treasury appoints the permanent head of each central government department to be its Accounting Officer.

The ''Green Book'' includes the historic five case model, which requires consideration of the policy, economic, commercial, financial and management dimensions of a proposed project.

Banknote issue

Banknotes in the UK are normally issued by the Bank of England and a number of commercial banks (see Banknotes of the pound sterling). At the start of the First World War, the Currency and Bank Notes Act 1914 was passed, giving the Treasury temporary powers to issue banknotes in two denominations, one at £1 and another at 10 shillings, in the UK. Treasury notes had full legal tender status and were not convertible for gold through the Bank of England. They replaced the gold coin in circulation to prevent a run on sterling and to enable purchases of raw materials for armaments production. These notes featured an image of King George V (Bank of England notes did not begin to display an image of the monarch until 1960). The wording on each note was ''UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND — Currency notes are Legal Tender for the payment of any amount by the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury under the Authority of Act of Parliament (4 & 5 Geo. V c.14)''. Notes issued after the partition of Ireland from 1922 had the wording changed to read "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

The promise (never adhered to) was that they would be removed from circulation after the war had ended. In fact, the notes were issued until 1928, when the Currency and Bank Notes Act 1928 returned note-issuing powers to the banks.

Associated public bodies

Executive agencies of HM Treasury

* Government Internal Audit Agency
* UK Debt Management Office, reporting to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, is responsible for government borrowing operations.

Other bodies reporting to Treasury ministers

*HM Revenue & Customs, a non-ministerial government department for which the responsible minister is the Exchequer Secretary
**Valuation Office Agency, an executive agency of HM Revenue and Customs
* National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, a body reporting to HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office
*National Savings and Investments, a Treasury-owned savings bank
*Office for Budget Responsibility, a non-departmental public body of HM Treasury
* UK Government Investments, a Treasury-owned holding company
** National Wealth Fund, a Treasury-owned fund
** Reclaim Fund, a Treasury-owned company operating the Dormant Assets Scheme
**Royal Mint, a Treasury-owned coinage company

History of the Treasury Main Building

The Treasury Main Building at 1 Horse Guards Road, often referred to as the Government Offices, Great George Street (GOGGS), was designed by John Brydon following a competition.HM Treasury: About GOGGS
/ref> Construction took place in two phases. The West end was completed in 1908 and the East end was completed in 1917. It was originally built as offices for the Board of Education, the Local Government Board, and the Ministry of Works Office; HM Treasury moved into the building in 1940. A major refurbishment of the building was procured under a Private Finance Initiative contract in 2000. The works, which were designed by Foster and Partners together with Feilden and Mawson and carried out by Bovis Lend Lease at a cost of £140 million, were completed in 2002.

See also

* Budget of the United Kingdom
* Economy of the United Kingdom
* List of lords commissioners of the Treasury
* List of lord high treasurers of England and Great Britain
* Lord High Treasurer

References

External links

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Ministerial departments of the Government of the United Kingdom
British economic policy
United Kingdom
Former banknote issuers of the United Kingdom
11th-century establishments in England