Originally, the chancellor was the chief officer in the daily management of the
Duchy of Lancaster and the
County Palatine of Lancaster (a
county palatine merged into the Crown in 1399), but that estate is now run by a deputy, leaving the chancellor as a member of the
Cabinet with little obligation in regard to the chancellorship. The position has often been given to a senior
Cabinet minister with responsibilities in a particular area of policy for which there is no department with an appropriate portfolio. In 1491, the office of
Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster was created. The position is now held by a judge of the
Chancery Division of the
High Court of Justice, who sits in the north west of England, and is no longer appointed to that position as legal officer of the Duchy.
Modern times Under the Promissory Oaths Act 1868, the chancellor is required to take the
oath of allegiance and the
Official Oath. The holder of the
sinecure is a
minister without portfolio;
Sir Oswald Mosley, for example, focused on unemployment after being appointed to the position in 1929 during the
second MacDonald ministry. Following the
Dardanelles campaign,
Winston Churchill was in 1915 appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, a humiliating loss of the trappings of power. The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is entitled to a salary under the
Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975, but section 3 of the act provides that the salary "shall be reduced by the amount of the salary payable to him otherwise than out of moneys so provided in respect of his office". The office of the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is part of the
Cabinet Office. From 1997 until 2009, the holder of the title also served as the
Minister for the Cabinet Office. This applied in the case of
Alan Milburn, who was given the title by Prime Minister
Tony Blair in 2004 and at the same time rejoined the
Cabinet. However, in the reshuffle of 5 June 2009, the chancellorship went to the Leader of the House of Lords,
the Baroness Royall. In
David Cameron's first cabinet, the chancellorship remained with the
leader of the House of Lords until 2014. When
David Lidington was appointed chancellor on 8 January 2018, the position of
Minister for the Cabinet Office was once again held concurrently. This continued until Michael Gove was appointed chancellor in July 2019. Michael Gove was given responsibility over the Cabinet Office, but did not initially hold the ministerial position of
Minister for the Cabinet Office (which is not on a statutory footing). He was later granted that title in the
2020 Cabinet reshuffle and the two positions remained together until February 2022. ==Responsibilities==