Secretary to the Treasury

In the United Kingdom, there are several Secretaries to the Treasury, who are junior Treasury Ministers nominally acting as secretaries to HM Treasury. The origins of the office are unclear, although it probably originated during Lord Burghley's tenure as Lord Treasurer in the 16th century. The number of secretaries was expanded to two by 1714 at the latest. (The Prime Minister remains First Lord of the Treasury, and this is the official title on the door to 10 Downing Street; the junior Lords of the Treasury are in fact Government Whips, and not Treasury Ministers.) The Treasury Ministers together discharge all the former functions of the Lord Treasurer, which are nowadays nominally vested in the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. The Chancellor is the senior treasury minister, followed by a Minister of State, then the secretaries: Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Economic Secretary to the Treasury and, at present,Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury. One of the present-day secretaries, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, commonly known as the Patronage Secretary, is the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons. This is because the Chief Whip is a political appointment rather than a government one, so the holder of the position is also required to hold a government offfice in order to attend cabinet.

As with the Permanaent Secretary to every Government Department, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, is not a minister but is the senior Treasury civil servant.

Current Secretaries to the Treasury (as of 24/06/09)

• Chief Secretary to the Treasury - Liam Byrne
• Financial Secretary to the Treasury - Stephen Timms
• Economic Secretary to the Treasury - Ian Pearson
• Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury - Sarah McCarthy-Fry
• Financial Services Secretary - Lord Myners

• Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury - Nick Brown

• Permanent Secretary to the Treasury - Nicholas Macpherson

Secretaries to the Treasury, 1660–1830

• Sir Philip Warwick 1660–1667
• Sir George Downing, Bt 1667–1671
• Sir Robert Howard 1671–1673
• Charles Bertie 1673–1679
• Henry Guy 1679–1689
• William Jephson 1689–1691
• Henry Guy 1691–1695
• William Lowndes 1695–1711

Parliamentary Secretaries to the Treasury, 1830–present

• Thomas Spring Rice 1830–1834
• Charles Wood 1834
• Sir George Clerk, Bt 1834–1835
• Francis Baring 1835–1839
• Hon. Edward J. Stanley 1839–1841
• Sir Thomas Fremantle, Bt 1841–1844
• Sir George Clerk, Bt 1844–1845
• John Young 1845–1846
• Henry Tufnell 1846–1850
• William Goodenough Hayter 1850–1852
• William Forbes Mackenzie 1852
• William Goodenough Hayter 1853–1858
• Sir William George Hylton Jolliffe 1858–1859
• Henry Brand 1859–1866
• Thomas Edward Taylor 1866–1868
• Gerard Noel 1868
• George Grenfell Glyn 1868–1873
• Arthur Wellesley Peel 1873–1874
• Sir William Hart Dyke 1874–1880
• Lord Richard Grosvenor 1880–1885
• Aretas Akers-Douglas 1885–1886
• Arnold Morley 1886
• Aretas Akers-Douglas 1886–1892
• Edward Marjoribanks 1892-1894
• Thomas Edward Ellis 1894-1895
• Sir William Hood Walrond, Bt 1895-1902
• Sir Alexander Acland-Hood, Bt 1902-1905
• George Whiteley 1905-1908
• Joseph Pease 1908-1910
• Master of Elibank 1910-1912
• Percy Holden Illingworth 1912-1915
• John William Gulland 1915
• Lord Edmund Talbot 1915-16 (Conservative, jointly)
• John William Gulland 1915-16 (Liberal, jointly)
• Lord Edmund Talbot 1916-21 (Conservative, jointly)
• Neil Primrose 1916-17 (Liberal, jointly)
• Frederick Guest 1917-21 (Liberal, jointly)
• Leslie Orme Wilson 1921- 1922 (Conservative, jointly)
• Charles McCurdy 1921-22 (Liberal, jointly)
• Leslie Orme Wilson 1922-1923
• Bolton Eyres-Monsell 1923-1924
• Ben Spoor 1924
• Bolton Eyres-Monsell 1924-1929
• Tom Kennedy 1929–31
• David Margesson 1931–1940
• Sir Charles Edwards 1940–42 (Labour, jointly)
• James Gray Stuart 1941–45 (Conservative, jointly)
• William Whiteley 1942–51 (Labour, jointly until 1945)
• Patrick Buchan-Hepburn 1951–55
• Edward Heath 1955–1959
• Martin Redmayne 1959–64
• Ted Short 1964–66
• John Silkin 1966–69
• Bob Mellish 1969–70
• Francis Pym 1970–1973
• Humphrey Atkins 1973–1974
• Bob Mellish 1974–1976
• Michael Cocks 1976–1979
• Michael Jopling 1979–1983
• John Wakeham 1983–1986
• David Waddington 1986–1989
• Tim Renton 1989–1990
• Richard Ryder 1990–1995
• Alastair Goodlad 1995–1997
• Nick Brown 1997–1998
• Ann Taylor 1998–2001
• Hilary Armstrong 2001–2006
• Jacqui Smith 2006–2007
• Geoff Hoon 2007–2008
• Nick Brown 2008–

Other Secretaries to the Treasury, 1852–present

• See:
  • Chief Secretary to the Treasury
  • Financial Secretary to the Treasury
  • Economic Secretary to the Treasury
  • Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.

See also

• Lord High Treasurer

References

• http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=16741