History
The history of the Court Funds Office dates back to an Act of Parliament in 1726 when the post of Accountant General of the Court of Chancery was instituted.
This office was set up to counter the speculative activities of some of the Masters of the Court who together with the Usher of the Court had previously been entrusted with monies lodged into court. It transpired that some of the Masters had been using the money to make dubious investments for their own benefit and sustained heavy losses to the money belonging to litigants and patients, and so it was ordered that all the money be boxed up and sent to the Bank of England for safekeeping. The role of the Accountant General was to act as bookkeeper to keep track of the funds held by the Bank.
In 1872 the Accountant General was replaced by the Paymaster General and the Office was renamed the Chancery Pay Office under the Treasury.
In 1884 when the Court of Exchequer was abolished, the office was renamed again and became the Supreme Court Pay Office, which now also held funds for Queen's Bench, Probate, Divorce and Admiralty cases. Chancery at this time also included Lunacy, which was subsequently transferred to a new department called the Management and Administration Department, eventually becoming the Court of Protection in 1947.
In 1925 the Pay Office reverted to being an office of the Supreme Court, and all powers transferred back from the Paymaster General to the recreated post of the Accountant General of the Supreme Court.
With the publication of the revised Supreme Court Fund Rules on 15 December 1975 the office was renamed again and the Court Funds Office was born.
With a further revision of the Rules in 1986, 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, the Trust functions of the Public Trust Office being taken over by the Official Solicitor's office which became the office of the Official Solicitor and Public Trustee and the rest of the Court of Protection functions were passed to a new agency to become the Public Guardianship Office. The Court Funds Office became part of the Supreme Court Group within the Court Service (Her Majesty's Court Service in April 2004).
On 1st April 2007, the Court Funds 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 new organisation is an associated office of the Ministry of Justice.