Queen Camilla will not receive the same amount of funding as Prince Philip did during his lifetime. Photo / Getty Images
Queen Camilla will not receive the same amount of funding as Prince Philip did during his lifetime. Photo / Getty Images
The Queen will not receive Prince Philip-style personal funding from Parliament to fund her official duties, a report has confirmed.
The late Duke of Edinburgh received an annual lump sum of £359,000 (NZ$737,000) until his death, despite a change in the way the Royal family’s activities were funded by the taxpayer.
However, a National Audit Office (NAO) report into the Royal household’s finances revealed that the cost of the Queen’s activities is met via the Sovereign Grant, with no additional financial input from the taxpayer.
Queen Camilla and King Charles at the Royal Ascot. Photo / Getty Images
The UK’s independent public spending watchdog on Friday published its spending and accountability report, examining the funding structures of the Royal family as part of its work to improve transparency.
It noted that as the King’s “future programme of activities” had yet to be determined, his reign could “alter future funding needs in substantial ways” given that Elizabeth II had cut back on events and travel in recent years.
“Parliament provided Prince Phillip with a separate annuity worth £359,000 per annum,” the report said. “Queen Camilla will not receive a separate annuity and the Queen’s activities will be funded from the grant.”
The old-style Civil List, the mechanism used to pay the late Queen and working members of the Royal family via Government grants to cover official expenses, was replaced in 2012 by the Sovereign Grant, which is based on a percentage of the Crown Estate’s profits.
But the new legislation kept a provision for the Duke, who retired in 2017 and died in 2021, to carry on receiving his annuity for his lifetime.
Prince Philip received a yearly stipend until his death. Photo / AP
The Civil List
He was mentioned by name in the retained section of the previous Civil List Act 1952 and therefore the annuity is not transferable to Camilla, who would require new legislation to receive such funds.
The Sovereign Grant is reviewed every five years but currently stands at 25 per cent of the Crown Estate’s net surplus two years prior, which equated to £86.3 million (NZ$177m) for 2022-23. Ten per cent of that is used to fund the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.
The report said that each King and Queen had their own interests and priorities which affected their schedule of events. ”Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had cut back on events and travel in recent years, in part because of the global Covid-19 pandemic,” it said.
“It can be reasonably assumed that the King will be hosting more events and travelling to more engagements within the UK, and overseas at the request of the Government.
“These changes may affect spending profiles but would be within available funding from the Grant.”
A review by Royal Trustees of how the Sovereign Grant is calculated is due to be published later this year.
New wind farm deals are set to give the Crown Estate additional income of £1 billion (NZ$2b) a year, which could boost the Sovereign Grant by more than £100m ($NZ$205m) a year if the formula is not revised.
The King asked in January for the wind farm profits to be used for the wider public good and last month, a Palace official confirmed there would be an “appropriate adjustment” to the formula which has yet to be confirmed.
