Paymaster General

United Kingdom
His Majesty's Paymaster General
United Kingdom; His Majesty's Paymaster General
	Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
	Incumbent; Nick Thomas-Symonds; since 8 July 2024
	Cabinet Office
Style	Paymaster General ; The Right Honourable (within the UK and Commonwealth)
Appointer	The King; (on the advice of the Prime Minister)
Inaugural holder	Henry Parnell
Formation	27 April 1836
Website	Official website

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.

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

Sir Henry Parnell, Bt. 1836–1841
Edward Stanley 1841
Sir Edward Knatchbull, Bt. 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
Stephen Cave 1874–1880
David Plunket 1880
George Glyn, 2nd Baron Wolverton 1880–1885
Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp 1885–1886
Thomas Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 5th Baron Thurlow 1886
Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp 1886–1887
Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow 1887–1889
Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey 1889–1890
Robert Windsor-Clive, 14th Baron Windsor 1890–1892
Charles Seale-Hayne 1892–1895
John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun 1895–1899
Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough 1899–1902

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
Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton 1939
Office vacant 1939–1940
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne 1940
Office vacant 1940–1941
Maurice Hankey 1941–1942
William Jowitt 1942
Frederick Lindemann, 1st Baron Cherwell 1942–1945
Office vacant 1945–1946
Arthur Greenwood 9 July 1946 Lab
Hilary Marquand 5 March 1947 Lab
The Viscount Addison 2 July 1948 also Leader of the House of Lords Lab
The Lord Macdonald of Gwaenysgor 1 April 1949 Lab

Paymaster General		Term of office		Concurrent office(s)	Political party
	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			Winston Churchill (III)
Office vacant		20 October 1955	18 October 1956			Anthony Eden (Eden)
	Walter Monckton MP for Bristol West	18 October 1956	16 January 1957			Anthony Eden (Eden)
	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		Harold Macmillan (II)
	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		Conservative	Edward Heath (Heath)
	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	Labour	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			Margaret Thatcher (III)
	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 Major (I)
	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

	Term of office		Concurrent office(s)	Political party
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)	Labour	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	Financial Secretary to the Treasury		Theresa May (II)
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)		Boris Johnson (II)
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			Liz Truss (Truss)
Jeremy Quin MP for Horsham	25 October 2022	13 November 2023			Rishi Sunak (Sunak)
John Glen MP for Salisbury	13 November 2023	5 July 2024			Rishi Sunak (Sunak)
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP for Torfaen	8 July 2024			Labour	Keir Starmer (Starmer)

List of shadow paymasters 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	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

References

^ Roper, Michael (1998). The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964. Kew, UK: Public Record Office.
^ ^a ^b 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.
^ 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.
^ "Press Release: Angela Eagle launches the Government Banking Service". HM Treasury. 22 May 2008. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010.
^ "Important changes to banking arrangements for the Insolvency Services Account". insolvency.gov.uk. The Insolvency Service. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010.
^ "Government Banking". gov.uk.
^ "Government Banking Service" (PDF). Department for Work and Pensions.

External links

Office of the Paymaster General – archived version, as of June 2008. Since then the OPG website redirects to the new GBS site:
Government Banking Service

[Roper1998-1] Roper, Michael (1998). The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964. Kew, UK: Public Record Office.

[NA-2] 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 for Work and Pensions.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

v t e HM Treasury
Headquarters: 1, Horse Guards Road
Ministers	First Lord of the Treasury Chancellor of the Exchequer / Second Lord of the Treasury Chief Secretary to the Treasury Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury* Paymaster General Financial Secretary to the Treasury Economic Secretary to the Treasury & City Minister Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Commercial Secretary to the Treasury Lords Commissioners of the Treasury*
Civil Service	Permanent Secretary to the Treasury
Non-ministerial departments	Government Actuary's Department National Savings and Investments
Executive agencies	Debt Management Office Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt Government Internal Audit Agency National Infrastructure Commission
Executive non-departmental public bodies	Office for Budget Responsibility
Other bodies	Crown Estate Infrastructure and Projects Authority Reclaim Fund Royal Mint UK Government Investments National Wealth Fund
Topics	Autumn Budget Budget day Spring Statement
Offices in italics are not currently in use * Sinecure offices nominally associated with the Treasury de facto held by Government Whips

v t e Cabinet Office
Ministers	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Minister for the Cabinet Office Minister without Portfolio Leader of the House of Lords Leader of the House of Commons Paymaster General Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office
Civil Service	Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary
Ministerial departments	Office of the Leader of the House of Commons Office of the Leader of the House of Lords
Non-ministerial department	UK Statistics Authority
Executive agencies	Crown Commercial Service Government Property Agency
Non-departmental public bodies	Civil Service Commission Equality and Human Rights Commission Advisory Committee on Business Appointments Boundary Commission for England Boundary Commission for Wales Committee on Standards in Public Life House of Lords Appointments Commission Security Vetting Appeals Panel Senior Salaries Review Body
Other organisations	Commissioner for Public Appointments Government Car Service (Prime Ministerial Car) Government Equalities Office Government Estates Management Infrastructure and Projects Authority Office of the Parliamentary Counsel Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists Privy Council Office
Secretariats	Civil Contingencies Secretariat Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms Defence and Overseas Secretariat Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat
Category