The longest-serving holder of the post was Dawn Primarolo, whose portfolio covered HM Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue (which during her tenure became merged as HM Revenue and Customs) and who served from 1999 to 2007.

Today, the Paymaster General is usually a minister without portfolio available for any duties which the government of the day may designate.

[2] The Paymaster General was formerly in nominal charge (and at one time in actual charge) of the Office of HM Paymaster General[3] (OPG), which held accounts at the Bank of England on behalf of government departments and selected other public bodies.

Integration of OPG accounts held with commercial banks was provided by the private company Xafinity Paymaster which is now part of the Equiniti group.

However, in 2008, the government announced that the Office of the Paymaster General would be incorporated into a new body, the Government Banking Service,[4] which also provides banking operations for HM Revenue & Customs and National Savings and Investments.