Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a junior Ministerial post in the UK Treasury. It is the 4th most significant Ministerial role within the Treasury after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and the Paymaster General. It is almost never a Cabinet office.

The current incumbent is Stephen Timms, who took up office on 5 October 2008.

History

The role of Financial Secretary to the Treasury was created in 1711 and was known as the Junior Secretary to the Treasury to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury who held the senior position. The first Junior Secretary to the Treasury is recorded as Thomas Harley who was appointed on 11 June 1711. The position has continued uninterrupted to the present day.

Notable former Financial Secretaries to the Treasury include Lord Frederick Cavendish, Austen Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin, Enoch Powell, Nigel Lawson, and Norman Lamont.

Sir William Joynson-Hicks was the only Financial Secretary in the Cabinet, in 1923, as the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, was also Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Current role

The current responsibilities of the Financial Secretary to the Treasury include Departmental responsibility for the Office for National Statistics, and the Royal Mint. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury had Departmental responsibility for HM Customs & Excise until the merger with the Inland Revenue to form HM Revenue and Customs.

Financial Secretaries to the Treasury since 1830

see Secretary to the Treasury for earlier incumbents

• Edward Ellice 1830–1832
• Charles Wood 1832–1834
• Francis Thornhill Baring 1834
• Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle, Bt 1834–1835
• Edward J. Stanley 1835–1839
• Robert Gordon 1839–1841
• Sir Denis Le Marchant 1841–1844
• John Young 1844–1845
• Edward Cardwell 1845–1846
• John Parker 1846–1849
• William Goodenough Hayter 1849–1850
• George Cornewall Lewis 1850–1852
• George Alexander Hamilton 1852
• James Wilson 1853–1858
• George Alexander Hamilton 1858–1859
• Sir Stafford Northcote 1859
• Samuel Laing 1859–1860
• Frederick Peel 1860–1865
• Hugh Childers 1865–1866
• George Ward Hunt 1866–1868
• George Sclater-Booth 1868
• Acton Smee Ayrton 1868–1869
• James Stansfeld 1869–1871
• William Edward Baxter 1871–1873
• John Dodson 1873–1874
• William Henry Smith 1874–1877
• Frederick Stanley 1877–1878
• Sir Henry Selwin-Ibbetson 1878–1880
• Lord Frederick Cavendish 1880–1882
• Leonard Henry Courtney 1882–1885
• John Tomlinson Hibbert 1885
• Sir Henry Thurstan Holland 1885
• Sir Matthew White Ridley 1885–1886
• William Jackson 1886
• Henry Hartley Fowler 1886
• William Jackson 1886–1891
• John Eldon Gorst 1891–1892
• Sir John Tomlinson Hibbert 1892–1895
• Robert William Hanbury 1895–1900
• Austen Chamberlain 1900–1902
• William Fisher 1902–1903
• Arthur Elliot 1903
• Victor Cavendish 1903–1905
• Reginald McKenna 1905–1907
• Walter Runciman 1907–1908
• Sir Charles Hobhouse 1908–1911
• Thomas McKinnon Wood 1911–1912
• Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman 1912–1914
• Edwin Samuel Montagu 1914–1915
• Sir Francis Dyke Acland 1915
• Edwin Samuel Montagu 1915–1916
• Thomas McKinnon Wood 1916
• Sir Hardman Lever 1916–1919 (coalition)
• Stanley Baldwin 1917–1921
• Edward Hilton Young 1921–1922
• John Waller Hills 1922–1923
• Archibald Boyd-Carpenter 1923
• Sir William Joynson-Hicks 1923
• Walter Guinness 1923
• William Graham 1924
• Walter Guinness 1924-25
• Ronald McNeill 1925-27
• Arthur Samuel 1927-29
• Frederick Pethick-Lawrence 1929-31
• Walter Elliot 1931-32
• Leslie Hore-Belisha 1932-34
• Alfred Duff Cooper 1934-35
• William Morrison 1935–1936
• John Colville 1936–1938
• Euan Wallace 1938
• Harry Crookshank 1939-1943
• Ralph Assheton 1943-1944
• Osbert Peake 1944
• William Glenvil Hall 1945–1950
• Douglas Jay 1950–1951
• John Boyd-Carpenter 1951–1954
• Henry Brooke 1954–1957
• Enoch Powell 1957–1958
• Jocelyn Simon 1958–1959
• Sir Edward Boyle 1959–1962
• Anthony Barber 1962–1963
• Alan Green 1963–1964
• Niall MacDermot 1964–1967
• Harold Lever 1967–1969
• Dick Taverne 1969–1970
• Patrick Jenkin 1970–1972
• Terrence Higgins 1972–1974
• John Gilbert 1974
• Robert Sheldon 1974–1979
• Nigel Lawson 1979–1981
• Nicholas Ridley 1981–1983
• John Moore 1983–1986
• Norman Lamont 1986–1989
• Peter Lilley 1989–1990
• Francis Maude 1990–1992
• Stephen Dorrell 1992–1994
• George Young 1994–1995
• Michael Jack 1995–1997
• Dawn Primarolo 1997–1999
• Barbara Roche 1999
• Stephen Timms 1999–2001
• Paul Boateng 2001–2002
• Ruth Kelly 2002–2004
• Stephen Timms 2004–2005
• John Healey 2005–2007
• Jane Kennedy 2007–2008
• Stephen Timms 2008–present

See also

• Secretary to the Treasury

External links

• British History Online List of Secretaries to the Treasury
• Treasury Ministerial responsibilities

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