Secretary to the Treasury

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In the United Kingdom, there are several secretaries to the Treasury, who are 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 Treasury ministers together discharge all the former functions of the Lord Treasurer, which are nowadays nominally vested in the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. Of the commissioners, only the Second Lord of the Treasury, who is also the chancellor of the Exchequer, is a Treasury minister (the others are the prime minister and the government whips).

The chancellor is the senior Treasury minister, followed by the chief secretary, who also attends Cabinet and has particular responsibilities for public expenditure. In order of seniority, the junior Treasury ministers are: the financial secretary, the economic secretary, the exchequer secretary, and the commercial secretary (currently not in use).

One of the present-day secretaries, the parliamentary secretary to the Treasury, formerly known as the Patronage Secretary, is not a Treasury minister but the government whip in the House of Commons. The office can be seen as a sinecure, allowing the chief whip to draw a government salary, attend Cabinet, and use a Downing Street residence.

Current Treasury Ministers (As of 1 September 2025)^[1]

Minister	Portrait	Office	Portfolio
James Murray		Chief Secretary to the Treasury	Responsible for public expenditure, including spending reviews.[2]
Lord Livermore		Financial Secretary to the Treasury	Leads the government’s growth agenda and oversees core Treasury business.[3]
Emma Reynolds		Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister)	Responsible for financial services regulation, savings policy and regulation.[4]
Dan Tomlinson		Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury	Responsible for tax policy and administration, customs/VAT, and oversight of HMRC.[5]
Torsten Bell		Parliamentary Secretary for the Treasury[a]	Supporting the Treasury's role across government and Treasury ministers in their duties.[6]
Sir Alan Campbell		Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury[a]	Government Chief Whip, though formally a junior minister in the Treasury.[6]

From October 2022, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury - the head of the departmental civil service - is James Bowler. There are two Second Permanent Secretaries: Catherine Little and Jim O'Neill.^[7]

• June 1660: Sir Philip Warwick
• May 1667: Sir George Downing, Bt
• October 1671: Sir Robert Howard
• July 1673: Charles Bertie
• March 1679: Henry Guy
• April 1689: William Jephson
• June 1691: Henry Guy
• March 1695: William Lowndes

• Chief Secretary to the Treasury (established 1961)
• Financial Secretary to the Treasury (established 1830)
• Economic Secretary to the Treasury (established 1947)
• Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (established 1996)
• Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (established 2008, not in use since 2010)
• Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (established 2010, not in use since 2017)

• Lord High Treasurer

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