Civil List payments - the public money which
pays for the upkeep of the Royal Family - are
to be frozen for the next 10 years, the prime
minister has said.
Tony Blair announced that the Queen would
continue to receive £7.9m a year in a
statement to the House of Commons on
Tuesday.
He said the Queen had agreed to the freeze,
which extends to 20 years the period in which
the figure - first set in 1990 - has remained
unchanged.
The settlement was possible because of the
"very substantial efficiencies" by the Royal
Family and by the relatively low level of
inflation during the 1990s, said Mr Blair
He said cost-cutting had achieved savings in
spending on the monarchy of 55% in real terms
over the past 10 years.
The Civil List would also take on extra costs,
he said, including staff pensions and some
running costs of palaces, totalling around £25m
over the next 10 year period.
'Continuing improvements'
Mr Blair said the settlement would continue to
allow the Queen to carry out her wide-ranging
duties as head of state while supporting
"continuing improvements in efficiency by
ensuring that financial and management
responsibility go hand in hand".
Conservative leader William Hague supported
the government's plans, saying that over the
past 10 years there was evidence that the
Civil List had been spent wisely and that the
royal household had been well managed.
He suggested that the trustees should lay a
further report if it became clear during the
coming decade that inflation was significantly
outpacing the chancellor's forecasts.
And the Liberal
Democrat leader,
Charles Kennedy,
welcomed the fact that
an amicable agreement
had been reached
between the royal
household and the
Treasury which would
put things on a stable
footing for a further
decade.
He asked for the Civil
List to be made fully accountable over the
next 10 years.
But the Labour MP Dennis Skinner condemned
the settlement. He said it was a disgrace that
in contrast many elderly people had only been
given only an extra 75-pence a week on their
basic state pension.
And Labour's Jeremy Corbyn said the prime
minister's statement was actually an
"understatement" in terms of the amount of
money spent on supporting the royals and
asked for a comment on the "possibility of
relocation of the Royal Family to somewhere
smaller and more modest in the future".
Mr Blair said he could not agree with that.
The freeze, agreed in negotiations between
Chancellor Gordon Brown and the royal
household, follows the build-up of a £35m
surplus in the previous 10-year period.
The extra money is the result of the Treasury
having over-estimated the inflation rate at the
time of the previous settlement in 1990.
Cost-cutting
At the same time the royal household has
managed to substantially reduce running costs.
Expenditure on royal travel has been cut,
including using a chartered helicopter rather
than RAF aircraft which was said to cost
double.
Around £800,000 has also been trimmed from
the cost of running the royal residences.
Along with the payment to the Queen, the Civil
List gives the Queen mother £643,000 and the
Duke of Edinburgh £359,000.
They are the only three members of the family
to be paid directly from the public purse. In
1994 the Queen agreed to pay for more minor
royals out of her own pocket.
The Prince of Wales lives off money earned
from the Duchy of Cornwall and is estimated to
get more than £4m a year.
~*~
Queen is described as a bad mother in
Morton programme(Electronic Telegraph)
By Tom Leonard, Media Correspondent
ANDREW MORTON, the author of a controversial biography of Diana,
Princess of Wales, is making an unauthorised ITV documentary about the
Queen in which it is claimed that she was a bad mother.
Morton is writing and presenting the hour-long programme, having
interviewed more than 200 people to build up what ITV claimed was a "highly
revealing" profile of the monarch. Palace officials stressed last night that they
had provided no more help than basic factual information and well-used
footage held by the royal archives.
Without access to the Queen or other members of the Royal Family, Morton
had to rely instead on such authorities as the jockey Willie Carson, the racing
commentator Lord Oaksey, a crewman on the ship that took the Queen on
her first royal trip, and her former hairdresser in Malta.
The Viscountess of Bangor, who as the writer Sarah Bradford produced a
somewhat unflattering biography of the Queen, says in the programme: "If the
Queen had spent even half as much time on the mating of her children as she
does on the breeding of her horses, all these troubles of the Nineties might
never had happened."
John Mizzi, a journalist in Malta when the Queen joined her husband there
from 1949 to 1951, claims the Duke of Edinburgh held the power in the
relationship. "Philip ran the show, that's my impression," he says. "He seemed
to boss her around all the time. I shouldn't say this but I've heard him swear at
her."
David Liddiment, ITV's director of programmes, said the aim of the
documentary, which is due to be broadcast this autumn, was to "tell it like it
is". He added: "I think the days of people being shocked by the Royal Family
are gone." Mr Liddiment said Morton, whose book exposed the rifts in the
marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, was the "biggest selling royal
biographer and obviously well versed in what's going on in the Royal
Household".
The documentary would inevitably be shaped by Morton's "perspective", he
said. "It's not setting out to make controversial claims, but equally it isn't a
glossy brochure for the Royal Family." Mr Liddiment said he was pitched the
idea for the documentary by Morton and Granada Television. "It struck me
that at the start of the Millennium it is as good a time as any to take stock of
an institution as crucial as any in Britain at a time of turmoil and change."
Granada Television said the documentary-makers had discussed with Palace
officials what they wanted to do and had been given permission to use footage
of the Queen from royal archives. A spokesman said: "The producer and
executive producer explained what they wanted to do and they didn't raise
any objections, either then or subsequently."
A Palace spokesman refused to say whether officials were angry about the
documentary. "It's up to the media what they choose to cover but as far as
we're concerned, the Queen's private life is exactly that. If producers wish to
make a programme about it, they're on their own. They certainly don't get any
assistance from us."
The spokesman added: "As with many programmes on the monarchy and the
Royal Family, we offer factual assistance but on this occasion there has been
no special access."
~*~
Queen to pay for Palace staff
pensions (UK Times)
BY ANDREW PIERCE
THE Queen is to pay pension contributions for the Royal
Household's 300 staff for the first time, under a
restructuring of the Civil List.
Tony Blair will confirm today that the Civil List is being
frozen for ten years at £7.9 million, and by the time it is
reviewed again in 2011, it will not have risen since 1991.
Since the last deal was negotiated, Buckingham Palace
has launched a multimillion-pound economy drive,
including £5 million savings on travel and maintenance
announced last week. But the Queen has also amassed a
£30 million surplus because the Civil List payment was
calculated assuming inflation averaging 7.5 per cent, when
in fact it is only 3 per cent.
The Queen has agreed to accept new responsibilities in
response to the £30 million windfall. The most expensive
will be the decision to pay the £2-3 million pension
contributions bill for everyone working in the royal
palaces, from footmen to her personal secretary.
A government source said: "There was a recognition by
the Royal Household that the last settlement had been too
generous. There was a great willingness to use the £30
million surplus which has built up. Value for money has
become the watchword."
Mr Blair will confirm that the Queen will receive £7.9
million, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother £643,000,
and the Duke of Edinburgh £359,000 a year. The Prince
of Wales takes nothing, and the Queen pays for minor
members of the Royal Family.