His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in HM Treasury of the United Kingdom. The position is currently held by James Murray of the Labour Co-op Party.
History
The post was created by the (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 (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 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 Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison 2 July 1948 also Leader of the House of Lords Lab Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor 1 April 1949 Lab
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
Leader of the House of Commons 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
21st century 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 OlympicsMinister for the Cabinet OfficeMinister 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 20 July 2026 Labour Keir Starmer James Murray 21 July 2026 Incumbent Financial Secretary to the Treasury Labour Co-op Andy Burnham
List of shadow paymasters general Shadow Paymaster general Term of office Party Shadow Cabinet Richard Ottaway 1 June 2000 1 June 2001 Conservative Hague Stephen O'Brien 1 June 2002 1 June 2003 Conservative Duncan SmithMark Prisk1 June 20031 June 2004Conservative Howard Andrew Tyrie 1 June 2004 1 June 2005 Conservative 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 8 November 2024 Conservative Sunak Richard Holden 8 November 2024 22 July 2025 Conservative BadenochHarriett Baldwin31 August 2026IncumbentConservative
Notes
References
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