Cost of Royal Family rises by £1.5m

Published on Monday 29 June 2009 13:03

THE Queen and the Royal Family cost the taxpayer 69p per person last year – an increase of 3p, Buckingham Palace accounts showed today.

The total cost of keeping the monarchy increased by 1.5 million to 41.5 million during the 2008-09 financial year.

• Opinion poll: Is the Royal Family worth 41.5m a year?

Palace accounts also showed that the Queen dipped into a reserve fund to boost her Civil List by 6 million.

This is the highest amount ever drawn from the reserve which comes from surplus Civil List money accumulated in the 1990s.

The total cost of the Queen's Civil List – which pays for the running of the Royal Household including staff salaries – was 13.9 million in 2008.

It was made up of 7.9 million from the Government and 6 million from the reserve.

The boost from the reserve accounted for 43% of the total.

This prompts speculation as to how much the Queen will ask the Government to increase the Civil List by when the current financial deal runs out in December 2010.

If she continues drawing on the reserve at the current rate, she will run out of funds by the start of 2012 – the year of her Diamond Jubilee.

The pot of money has gone down from 35 million to 21 million over the last decade.

The current deal – in which the Queen gets 7.9 million a year – was agreed by Sir John Major in 1990.

The total 41.5 million cost for the Royal Family excludes the cost of security provided by the police and Army, and the ceremonial duties performed by the Armed Forces.

The amount spent on royal travel – which come from the taxpayer through grants-in-aid – increased by 300,000 from 6.2 million to 6.5 million.

The most expensive journeys were the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall's long-haul overseas tours, which were mentioned in Charles's annual review last week.

Today's accounts revealed the actual figures, showing that the cost came to 1,310,669 including staff reconnaissance trips.

Their charter flights to the Far East cost 655,675, a train ride from Tokyo cost 2,596, their flights to South America came to 645,127 and the charter yachts cost 7,271.

In addition, a staff reconnaissance ahead of the trip to the Far East cost 35,810 in flights, while the one to South America was 41,423.

A charter flight by the Duke of York from RAF Northolt to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt in May last year to attend the World Economic Forum cost 55,269.

The Civil List has not increased for two decades.

It was frozen following a deal with the Treasury in 2000 to compensate for 10 years of over-generous payments.

The accounts showed that last year the Civil List was spent on salaries at a cost of 9.9 million, administration at 1.5 million, housekeeping and furnishings at 700,000, ceremonial functions at 400,000, 300,000 was used for other unnamed costs and 1.1 million spent on catering and hospitality.

Within this, garden parties cost 600,000, while the bill for food and the royal kitchens came to 500,000.

Keeping the Palace and other residences spick and span cost 300,000 for housekeeping, while 400,000 was spent on furnishings and equipment.

Computers and IT systems cost 400,000 – double the figure for 2007 following the launch of a new British monarchy website and new personnel, payroll and online recruitment systems.