Permanent Secretary to the Treasury

The UK Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is the most senior civil servant at HM Treasury. The post originated as that of Assistant Secretary to the Treasury in 1805; that office was given new duties and renamed in 1867 as a Permanent Secretaryship.

The position is generally regarded as the second most influential in Her Majesty's Civil Service; Andrew Turnbull (Permanent Secretary from 1998 to 2002) and Gus O'Donnell (2002–2005) were Permanent Secretaries to the Treasury who then became Cabinet Secretary, the most influential post.

Previous incumbents have not always maintained the political neutrality expected of civil servants; in 1909 Sir George Murray was involved in lobbying various Crossbench peers in the House of Lords to reject the Chancellor of the Exchequer's proposed budget.^[1]

Assistant Secretaries to the Treasury

• George Harrison (1805–1826)
• William Hill (1826–1828)
• James Henry Keith Stewart (1828–1836)
• Alexander Spearman (1836–1840)
• Sir Charles Trevelyan (1840–1859)
• George Alexander Hamilton (1859–1867)

Permanent Secretaries to the Treasury

• George Alexander Hamilton (1867–1870)
• Sir Ralph Lingen (1870–1885)
• Sir Reginald Welby (1885–1894)
• Sir Edward Hamilton (1885–1907) (joint)
• Sir Francis Mowatt (1894–1903) (joint)
• Sir George Murray (1903–1911) (joint)
• Sir Robert Chalmers (1911–1913)
• Sir John Bradbury (1913–1919) (joint)
• Sir T. L. Heath (1913–1919) (joint)
• Sir Robert Chalmers (1916–1919)
• Sir Warren Fisher (1919–1939)
• Sir Horace Wilson (1939–1942)
• Sir Richard Hopkins (1942–1945)
• Sir Edward Bridges (1945–1956)
• Sir Norman Brook (1956–1963) (joint)
• Sir Roger Makins (1956–1959) (joint)
• Sir Frank Lee (1960–1962) (joint)
• Sir William Armstrong (1962–1968) (joint)
• Sir Laurence Helsby (1963–1968) (joint)
• Sir Douglas Allen (1968–1974)
• Sir Douglas Wass (1974–1983)
• Sir Peter Middleton (1983–1991)
• Sir Terence Burns (1991–1998)
• Sir Andrew Turnbull (1998–2002)
• Sir Gus O'Donnell (2002–2005)
• Sir Nicholas Macpherson (2005–present)

Since March 2009, Tom Scholar has served as the Treasury's Second Permanent Secretary. The post of Head of the Government Economic Service had been held by Sir Nicholas Stern (now Lord Stern of Brentford) until June 2007, since when it has been jointly held by Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser and Director General of Economics at BIS, and Dave Ramsden, Managing Director, Macroeconomic and Fiscal Policy Directorate.

References

• "Assistant and Permanent Secretary 1805—70". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 1: Treasury Officials 1660-1870. 1972. p. 32. Retrieved 2007-05-18.