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 His 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] In 2014, during the Scottish Independence referendum campaign, Sir Nicholas Macpherson broke with convention by publishing private advice[2] to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. The decision to publish was later criticised for compromising the impartiality of the Civil Service.[3]

  1. ^ McLean, Ian. "The 1909 budget and the destruction of the unwritten British Constitution". History & Policy. United Kingdom. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  2. ^ Macpherson, Nicholas (11 February 2014). "Scotland and a Currency Union" (PDF). gov.uk. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  3. ^ Stone, Jon (23 March 2015). "Civil servants 'compromised' their impartiality during the Scottish independence referendum with 'partisan' statements, MPs conclude". The Independent. London. Retrieved 12 November 2020.