Lords Commissioners of the Treasury
In the
It is commonly thought that the Lords Commissioners of HM Treasury serve as commissioners for exercising the office of Lord High Treasurer, however this is not true. The confusion arises because both offices used to be held by the same individual at the same time.[2][3]
Strictly they are commissioners for exercising the office of
Until the 19th century, this commission made most of the economic decisions of
As an office in commission, technically all Lords Commissioners of the Treasury are of equal rank, with their ordinal numbers connoting seniority rather than authority over their fellow Lords Commissioners. However, from at least the reign of Queen Anne, de facto power has rested with the top-numbered Lords.
Current officeholders
The current Lords Commissioners of the Treasury were appointed by letters patent dated 15 December 2023.[6]
Portfolio | Name |
---|---|
First Lord of the Treasury | The Rt Hon. Rishi Sunak MP |
Second Lord of the Treasury
|
The Rt Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP |
Junior Lords | The Rt Hon. Dame Amanda Milling DBE MP |
Joy Morrissey MP | |
Scott Mann MP | |
Amanda Solloway MP | |
Mike Wood MP |
Relationship with Ministers of HM Treasury
Of all the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, typically the only one who actually works in
None of the other lords of the Treasury work for the Treasury in a substantive sense. Rather they are government whips, given nominal positions in the Treasury to enable them to be suitably remunerated for facilitating the function of
The lords of the Treasury nominally head HM Treasury. They do so by virtue of office and as a matter of law, acting in the office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The Chancellor does so in reality, consulting the Prime Minister, and delegating parliamentary-level work to the other ministers in the Treasury, none of whom are Lords of the Treasury, who negotiate and formulate the rest of Treasury business. These junior ministerial positions are, in descending order of rank:
- Chief Secretary to the Treasury (effectively a Cabinet member, as the incumbent always has the right to attend meetings if not a full, statutory member)
- Financial Secretary to the Treasury (often paired with the office of Paymaster General, which is not always allocated to the Treasury)
- Commercial Secretary to the Treasury
- Economic Secretary to the Treasury
- Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
Relationship between the First and Second Lords
Historically, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was also the First Lord of the Treasury, and usually by extension Prime Minister as well. However the increasing sophistication of government spending led to the development of the chancellorship into a more refined position of finance minister, and so gradually particularised the office in a way less suitable for headship of the ministry overall. The last Chancellor-Prime Minister was Stanley Baldwin in 1923, and then only very briefly – the last substantive overlap was William Gladstone in 1880–1882.
A more immediately significant trend though was the rebalancing of the powers of the Houses of Parliament in favour of the lower house. From the Glorious Revolution and onwards it had become increasingly constitutionally untenable for the person setting fiscal policy (i.e. the Chancellor) to reside in the House of Lords, a principle which was embedded permanently in the constitution from 1718 with the resignation of Lord Stanhope (note this excepts the brief tenures of certain Lord Chief Justices, who historically assumed the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer pro tempore during vacancies, and who were often peers). That notwithstanding, the constitutional convention mandating that the Prime Minister reside in the Commons became embedded much later, with a Prime Minister serving without difficulty from the Lords as late as 1902. That Alec Douglas-Home, the last to assume the Premiership from the Lords in 1963, felt compelled to disclaim his peerage and take up a seat in the Commons shows that the convention had, by that time, become well-entrenched.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Prime Ministers would continue to be drawn regularly from the upper house. In circumstances where the Prime Minister was a peer it was felt appropriate for the head of the ministry overall to take the
Relationship between the First Lord of the Treasury and the Prime Minister
Since the evolution of the position, the Prime Minister has also served as First Lord of the Treasury in all but two cases. The initial linkage of the two offices is not surprising, since at the formation of the office the First Lord of the Treasury did indeed take part in running the Treasury, and as First Lord was the most senior person so tasked. Since control of money usually granted most power, it is not surprising that such a person would head the government as a whole. Indeed, even after decades of the emergence of the Premiership, William Pitt the Younger proffered that the Prime Minister "ought to be the person at the head of the finances."[7]
The two exceptions were
Since Salisbury, the two roles have become completely concomitant, so much so that the Prime Minister's official residence,
Other positions have been linked to the Prime Ministership as well. Continuously since 1968, when the position was created by Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister has also served as Minister for the Civil Service.[9] The adoption of this additional position was directly linked to reforms to HM Treasury, being created when responsibilities for the pay and management of the civil service was transferred from the Treasury to a new Civil Service Department. Since the Prime Minister was a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, prior to the reform he had had ex officio oversight of these portfolios, but it was felt more proper for the civil service to be held outside of a particularised department. Nevertheless, in recognition of the primary authority of the Prime Minister over the Civil Service, it is a constitutional convention that the Ministry would always be held by the Prime Minister.[1][10] Though the Civil Service Department was abolished by Margaret Thatcher in 1982, the title was retained.[11] Whereas the First Lordship of the Treasury has been a complete sinecure for some time, the functions of the Minister for the Civil Service have at times required the Prime Minister to discharge policy and be held accountable for it. For instance, it was occupying this role which saw the Prime Minister sued for her policies in Council of Civil Service Unions v Minister for the Civil Service.
Other offices have historically been linked to the Prime Ministership but are no longer. Until
Accordingly, the First Lord of the Treasury is the title most associated with the Prime Ministership. Seven Prime Ministers saw fit to occupy the post of First Lord of the Treasury only, and held no other subsidiary office. Those Prime Ministers were
See also
- List of lords commissioners of the Treasury since 1714
- List of lord high treasurers of England and Great Britain – includes a list of former lords commissioners of the Treasury until 1714
- Secretary to the Treasury
References
- ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 228–229.
- ISBN 0485171414. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ Anson, Sir William Reynell (1892). The Law and Custom of the Constitution, Part 2. Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press. pp. 163–164. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
- ^ "Consolidated Fund Act 1816". legislation.gov.uk. UK Government. p. Section 2. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
- ^ Stuart Handley, ‘Talbot, Charles, duke of Shrewsbury (1660–1718)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008)[1], accessed 19 Aug 2008.
- ^ "Crown Office". The London Gazette (64261). TSO. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 15 April 2024.
- ^ Blick, Andrew; Jones, George (7 June 2010). "The power of the Prime Minister". History & Policy. United Kingdom. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
- ^ Andrew Roberts, Salisbury: Victorian Titan (2000)
- ISBN 978-0-19-826870-3.
- ^ David Wood (17 October 1968). "Ministers in merger dilemma". The Times. No. 57384. London. p. 1.
- ^ Anthony Sampson, The Changing Anatomy of Britain (1982)