The Queen will not be granted an annual allowance worth almost £360,000 from parliament to fund official duties – despite the previous consort, Prince Philip, being paid the same sum.
The funding structures of the Royal Familywere subject to scrutiny by the National Audit Office (NAO) – the UK’s independent public spending watchdog.
A report on the royal household’s spending and accountability was published on Friday as part of the NAO’s work to improve transparency.
It suggested the King‘s diary is expected to be busier than his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II – in part due to her scaling back engagements due to the pandemic.
The monarch could “alter future funding needs in substantial ways” as a result, the NAO concluded.
The report said: “Parliament provided Prince Philip with a separate annuity worth £359,000 per annum.
“Queen Camilla will not receive a separate annuity and the Queen’s activities will be funded from the (Sovereign) Grant.”
What is the Sovereign Grant?
The Sovereign Grant is a single grant supporting the monarch’s official business as head of state and covers central staff costs and running expenses of the Royal household – including official receptions and parties.
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It also funds maintenance of Royal palaces in England and travel costs for engagements and visits.
In exchange, the King gives revenue from the Crown Estate to the government.
The Sovereign Grant is calculated based on 25% of the Crown Estate’s annual profits.
A total of £86.3m was granted for 2022-2023, the same as the previous year.
The Sovereign Grant replaced the former Civil List – which saw the late Queen given a payment, together with a number of government grants, to cover her official expenses – in 2011.
But the late Duke of Edinburgh continued to receive the £359,000 annuity every year despite the change in the way the royal family’s activities were funded by taxpayers.
The new legislation included a provision for Philip, who died aged 99 in 2021, to continue receiving the annuity for his lifetime.
Now, new laws would need to be created in order for Camilla to receive the funding.
The King’s future schedule, which has not yet been finalised, is likely to be busier than his late mother’s, with events and travel reduced in part due to the COVID pandemic.
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“It can reasonably be assumed the King will be hosting more events and travelling to more engagements within the UK and overseas at the request of the government,” the NAO report said.
However, the watchdog suggested there would be sufficient funds from the Sovereign Grant to pay for any extra costs.
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In the past financial year, the royal household’s total expenditure for 2023 was £117.3m – of which, £107.5m was funded by the public.
Millions spent on Buckingham Palace refurbishment
A total of £369m has been earmarked for a 10-year programme to renovate Buckingham Palace, with more than £185m spent between 2017 and 2023, the NAO said.
The royal household said the refurbishment, which includes upgrading cabling, plumbing and heating, is “on track” and is “not expected to go over budget”.
A value-for-money audit report on the major works is due to be published by the NAO next year.
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Plans for an external visitor centre have been abandoned after it was determined a “more suitable solution” is available inside Buckingham Palace, the NAO report found.
New wind farm deals could boost the Crown Estate’s coffers by an extra £1bn a year – which could increase the Sovereign Grant by more than £100m annually.
However, the King asked for wind farm profits to be used for the wider public good in January.
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
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His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.