Catalogue description Court Funds Office Website

Please see information at Divisional level.

This series contains more than one link to the ‘snapshots’ of this website. For some websites, the URL may change periodically. Despite this change to the URL these websites are part of the same record series as they represent the department or organisation’s presence on the web at the time. Occasionally, more than one domain URL to the same website may run in parallel creating an overlap.

The Court Funds Office provides a banking investment and administration service for the courts throughout England and Wales, including the High Court. It accounts for money being paid into and out of court and, as directed by the court, look after any investments made with that money. The Accountant General of the Supreme Court is responsible for the proper control of all money paid into court.

The history of the Court Funds Office dates back to 1726 when the post of Accountant General of the Court of Chancery was first instituted. In 1872 the Accountant General was replaced by the Paymaster General and the Office was renamed the Chancery Pay Office under the Treasury which continued until 1884 when the office was renamed and became the Supreme Court Pay Office. In 1975 office was renamed again as the Court Funds Office following the publication of revised Supreme Court Fund Rules on 15 December 1975.

In 1987 following a further revision of the Supreme Court Fund Rules, the Court Funds Office, Public Trustee and Court of Protection were amalgamated to become the Public Trust Office. In April 2001 the Public Trust Office was disbanded, and the Court Funds Office became part of the Supreme Court Group within the Court Service (Her Majesty's Court Service in April 2004). On 1 April 2007, the Court Funds Office left Her Majesty's Court Service and joined with the Official Solicitor and Public Trustee to become the Offices of Court Funds, Official Solicitor and Public Trustee; this organisation was an associated office of the Ministry of Justice. On 1 April 2009, the Court Funds Office demerged from the Official Solicitor and the Public Trustee.