The Treasury

The Treasury, headed by the chancellor of the exchequer, is the UK’s economics and finance ministry. Its functions include economic policy, the design of tax and welfare policy, managing public expenditure, financial regulation, international finance and financial services policy.

It also has a role in monetary policy and economic forecasting, though much operational responsibility for these has been handed to the Bank of England and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), an executive non-departmental public body of the Treasury.

Fiscal events like budgets, spring statements and spending reviews are important political moments and provide an opportunity for the Treasury to set the direction for taxation, public spending and the economy overall.

A snapshot of Treasury staffing

The Treasury core department had 2,030 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in Q3 2025. It almost doubled in size over the preceding decade, having had 1,090 FTE staff in Q1 2014. The OBR’s headcount also increased between Q1 2014 and Q1 2025, from 20 to 49 FTE. Like many other departments, the Treasury experienced a decline in staff numbers 2010 and 2014.

The Treasury and OBR have both experienced a slight reduction in total staff numbers since their recent peaks in 2023/2024 respectively. This places them among a minority of departments with declining numbers of staff in recent years. The Treasury’s staff numbers peaked at 2,065 in Q3 2023. The OBR’s staff numbers have been between 40 and 52 FTE since 2021.

There has been relative stability in the number of senior civil servants, executive officers and administrative assistants/officers and in the Treasury. The growth in overall staff numbers has been driven by growth in the number of grade 7/6, higher executive officer and senior executive officer roles over the last decade.

The jump in grade sevens and sixes in recent years reflects a broader trend towards grade inflation across the civil service. This is at least partly explained by a desire for managers, during a period of public sector pay restraint, to reward civil servants by promoting them to a higher grade as they have not been able to give them a pay rise at the same grade.

A snapshot of Treasury pay

Pay of senior officials in the Treasury lags well behind counterparts elsewhere in the public sector. The Treasury’s second permanent secretary and permanent secretary command six-figure salaries. But these are well below their counterparts at the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as are the salaries paid to Treasury directors and deputy directors.

A snapshot of Treasury spending

The Treasury is a small department in terms of its day-to-day programme and administration spending. In 2024/25, the Treasury’s Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (RDEL) was £411m in 2025/26 prices, making it the lowest spending government department on this measure.  

This measure of spending has been volatile at times. In 2012/13 and 2013/14, Treasury RDEL was recorded as being negative. This is because of the interventions the government made in response to the financial crisis. Fee income and recoveries from the government’s ownership of shares in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Northern Rock, as well as deriving from its other financial interventions were counted as negative RDEL and more than offset the Treasury’s other spending in those years.