Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Fiji – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 16 June 1964.
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
, Kinross and West Perthshire
12:00,
16 June 1964
I do not think that we should necessarily achieve this result by putting one Minister over, for example, the Foreign Secretary and the Chancellor of the exchequer, because these matters go very much into the sphere of both of them. What happens is that Ministers meet and arrange policy, and whenever it is necessary for a Minister to speak at Geneva or at meetings of the International Fund, that policy is put forward by the Minister most appropriate.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
The chancellor's plans for the economy are delivered to the House of Commons every year in the Budget speech.
The chancellor is the most senior figure at the Treasury, even though the prime minister holds an additional title of 'First Lord of the Treasury'. He normally resides at Number 11 Downing Street.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
