The Comptroller General of the Exchequer was a position in the Exchequer of HM Treasury between 1834 and 1866. The Comptroller General had responsibility for authorising the issue of public monies from the Treasury to government departments.
The post was created in the Act to Regulate the Office of the Receipt of his Majesty's Exchequer of 1834, coming into effect on 11 October that year. [1] The position merged several offices of the Exchequer together, including that of Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer. [2] The Comptroller General was given custody of all the records of the Exchequer of Receipt, including standard weights and measures and standard pieces of gold, silver, and copper. The inaugural Comptroller was Sir John Newport, 1st Baronet. He was replaced on 18 April 1835 by Thomas Spring Rice, later Lord Monteagle of Brandon, who also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Monteagle retained the role after he left the Cabinet in 1839, despite Lord Howick's strong opposition to the maintenance of the office.
The holder of the position received the generous salary of £2,000 per year, and the office became widely seen as an extravagant and unnecessary sinecure. Its retention was criticised by Henry Liddell in a speech in the Commons in 1840. [3] By the 1860s Monteagle differed from the government regarding the Exchequer control over the Treasury, and the abolition of the old exchequer was already determined upon when he died in early 1866. The post was abolished by the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 by which its duties were merged with those of the Commissioners of Audit, creating the position of Comptroller and Auditor General. [4]
| Name | Portrait | Term of office | Political party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sir John Newport, Bt. |  | 11 October 1834 | 18 April 1835 | Whig | |
| Thomas Spring Rice, later Lord Monteagle |  | 18 April 1835 | 7 February 1866 | Whig | |
| Office vacant | 7 February 1866 | 20 June 1866 | |||
Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, it is 200 metres (660 ft) long, and a few minutes' walk from the Houses of Parliament. Downing Street was built in the 1680s by Sir George Downing.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to Chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the chancellor is a high-ranking member of the British Cabinet.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) in the United Kingdom is the government official responsible for supervising the quality of public accounting and financial reporting. The C&AG is an officer of the House of Commons who is the head of the National Audit Office, the body that scrutinises central government expenditure.
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Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, was a British Whig politician, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839.
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The Committee of Public Accounts is a select committee of the British House of Commons. It is responsible for overseeing government expenditures, and to ensure they are effective and honest. The committee is seen as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in government financial operations, having been described by Professor the Lord Hennessy as "the queen of the select committees...[which] by its very existence exert[s] a cleansing effect in all government departments".
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The Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1866 is the UK Act of Parliament under which most of the revenue from taxation, and all other money payable to the Exchequer, must be paid into the Consolidated Fund.
Sir John Newport, 1st Baronet was an Anglo-Irish Whig politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland.
The Commissioners of Audit had responsibility from 1785 to 1866 for the auditing of public accounts in the United Kingdom.
In the United Kingdom, the Great Officers of State are traditional ministers of the Crown who either inherit their positions or are appointed to exercise certain largely ceremonial functions or to operate as members of the government. Separate Great Officers exist for England and Wales, Scotland, and formerly for Ireland, though some exist for Great Britain and the United Kingdom as a whole.
