Chancellor of the Exchequer

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the Palmshire Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations. The position is considered one of the four Great Offices of State and in recent times has come to be the most powerful office in Palmshire politics after the Prime Minister. It is the only office of the four Great Offices not to have been occupied by a woman.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is now always Second Lord of the Treasury as one of the Lords Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Treasurer. In the early Palmshire years it was common for the Prime Minister to also serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer if he/she sat in the Commons. The Chancellor also has oversight of public spending across Government departments.

The current Chancellor of the Exchequer is Mark, MP for Downtown Blizzard.

Roles and responsibilities

Fiscal policy

The Chancellor has considerable control over other departments as it is the Treasury which sets departmental expenditure limits. The amount of power this gives to an individual Chancellor depends on his/her personal forcefulness, his/her status with his/her party and his/her relationship with the Prime Minister.

Ministerial arrangements

At HM Treasury the Chancellor is supported by a political team of four junior ministers and by permanent civil servants. The most important junior minister is the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a member of the Cabinet, to whom the negotiations with other government departments on the details of government spending are delegated, followed by the Paymaster General, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Two other officials are given the title of a Secretary to the Treasury, although neither is a government minister in the Treasury: the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury is the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons; the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury is not a minister but the senior civil servant in the Treasury.

The holder of the office of Chancellor is ex-officio Second Lord of the Treasury.

The Chancellor is obliged to be a member of the Privy Council, and thus is styled the Right Honorable (Rt. Hon.).

List of Chancellors of the Exchequer

Number	Name	Entered office	Left office	Party affiliation	Prime Minister	Notes
8th	Kitty Kat Kelsey	10 February 2012	28 July 2012	Moose	Lord Arcadia
9th	Jennifer de la Cueva	28 July 2012	29 August 2012	Moose	Lord Tokeington
10th	Neo	15 September 2012	16 April 2014	Socialist	Chris D
11th	Mark	16 April 2014	Incumbent	Socialist	Chris D