Formerly, in cases when the chancellorship was vacant, the lord chief justice of the King's Bench would act as chancellor pro tempore.

It originally carried responsibility for the Exchequer, the medieval English institution for the collection and auditing of royal revenues.

The earliest surviving records which are the results of the exchequer's audit date from 1129 to 1130 under King Henry I and show continuity from previous years.

The amount of power this gives to an individual chancellor depends on their personal forcefulness, their status within their party and their relationship with the prime minister.

Gordon Brown, who became chancellor when Labour came into Government in 1997, had a large personal power base in the party.

Perhaps as a result, Tony Blair chose to keep him in the same position throughout his ten years as prime minister; making Brown an unusually dominant figure and the longest-serving chancellor since the Reform Act 1832.

[9] Although the Bank of England is responsible for setting interest rates, the chancellor also plays an important part in the monetary policy structure.

[10] The Act also provides that the Government has the power to give instructions to the Bank on interest rates for a limited period in extreme circumstances.

At HM Treasury the chancellor is supported by a political team of four junior ministers and by permanent civil servants.

Because the House of Lords is excluded from financial matters by tradition confirmed by the Parliament Acts, the office is effectively limited to members of the House of Commons; apart from the occasions when the lord chief justice of the King's Bench has acted as interim Chancellor.

Dorneywood is the summer residence that is traditionally made available to the chancellor, though it is the prime minister who ultimately decides who may use it.

Gordon Brown, on becoming chancellor in 1997, refused to use it and the house, which is set in 215 acres (87 ha)[13] of parkland, was allocated to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The practice is said to have begun in the late 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth I's representative Francis Throckmorton presented the Spanish Ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, with a specially constructed red briefcase filled with black puddings.

Made by industrial trainees at Babcock Rosyth Defence Ltd ship and submarine dockyard in Fife, the new box is made of yellow pine, with a brass handle and lock, covered in scarlet leather and embossed with the Royal cypher and crest and the chancellor's title.

Previous chancellors have opted for whisky (Kenneth Clarke), gin and tonic (Geoffrey Howe), brandy and water (Benjamin Disraeli and John Major), spritzer (Nigel Lawson) and sherry and beaten egg (William Gladstone).

[18] The chancellors after Clarke, Philip Hammond, George Osborne, Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown,[19] opted for water.