UK Exchequer
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| Department overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1066 or earlier |
| Jurisdiction | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters |
1 Horse Guards Road Westminster, London |
| Employees | 1169 FTE (+113 in DMO) |
| Annual budget | £3.8 billion (current) & £300 million (capital) for Chancellor's Departments in 2011–12 |
| Minister responsible | |
| Department executive | |
| Child Department | |
| Website | www |
Her Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), sometimes referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is the British government department responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Treasury maintains the Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting (OSCAR), the replacement for the Combined Online Information System (COINS), which itemises departmental spending under thousands of category headings, and from which the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) annual financial statements are produced.
The leading pronoun in the department's name varies depending upon the gender of the reigning monarch.
The beginnings of the Treasury of England have been traced by some to an individual known as Henry the Treasurer, a servant to King William the Conqueror. This claim is based on an entry in the Domesday Book showing the individual Henry "the treasurer" as a landowner in Winchester, where the royal treasure was stored.
The Treasury of the United Kingdom thus traces its origins to the Treasury of the Kingdom of England, which had come into existence by 1126, in the reign of Henry I. The Treasury emerged from the Royal Household. It was where the king kept his treasures. The head of the Treasury was called the Lord Treasurer.
Starting in Tudor times, the Lord Treasurer became one of the chief officers of state, and competed with the Lord Chancellor for the principal place. In 1667, Charles II of England was responsible for appointing George Downing, the builder of Downing Street, to radically reform the Treasury and the collection of taxes.
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Wikipedia