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 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 Chancellor of the Exchequer is a Treasury minister. (The others are the Prime Minister and Government Whips.) The Chancellor is the senior treasury minister, followed by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who is also a Cabinet Minister and has particular responsibilities for public expenditure. The junior ministers are Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Commercial 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, not a Treasury minister. 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.
Read more about Secretary To The Treasury: Current Secretaries To The Treasury, Secretaries To The Treasury, 1660–1830, Other Secretaries To The Treasury, 1852–present
Famous quotes containing the words secretary and/or treasury:
“... the wife of an executive would be a better wife had she been a secretary first. As a secretary, you learn to adjust to the boss’s moods. Many marriages would be happier if the wife would do that.”
—Anne Bogan, U.S. executive secretary. As quoted in Working, book 1, by Studs Terkel (1973)
“Listen to me, imbecile. If the Treasury is important, then human life is not. This is clear. All those who think like you ought to admit this reasoning and count their lives for nothing because they hold money for everything.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)