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Clarence House responds to the public accounts committee
27th July 2005
On 28th July 2005, the House of Common’s Committee of Public Accounts published a report on the accounts of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall.
Both Duchies, together with the Treasury, will review all the recommendations made in the Committee’s Report and respond fully and formally later in the year.
Among the recommendations which the report makes are a number of suggestions that the Duchies should be managed and regulated in same way as public bodies.
On the day of publication, Sir Michael Peat, Private Secretary to TRH The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall said in an initial reaction to the report:
“It seems that the Public Accounts Committee may have misunderstood what the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall are. They are not public bodies. They are well-run private estates, specifically created to provide private income for the Sovereign and the Heir to The Throne. This also means that the British taxpayer does not have to fund the large majority of The Prince of Wales’s public duties.
“Successive governments have concluded that the two Duchies are the right way to provide private income for the Sovereign and the Heir to The Throne and to help underpin the Monarchy’s independence, political neutrality and role in national life.
These arrangements mean that The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Prince Harry together cost just 4 pence per person per year.
Another recommendation in the report is that the direct involvement of The Prince of Wales in the management of the Duchy of Cornwall creates a potential conflict between the interest of the current Duke of Cornwall (The Prince of Wales) and future Dukes.
Sir Michael pointed out:
“In order to ensure that the Duchy of Cornwall will continue to provide a private income for future Heirs to the Throne, the Treasury oversees all major transactions and its accounts are laid before Parliament. The Treasury’s role ensures that the possibility of a conflict of interest through The Prince of Wales’s management of the Duchy has already been addressed.”
Clarence House also showed how successfully the current Prince of Wales was managing the Duchy. Over the past six years, the capital value of the Duchy – to which the Prince has no access - had increased by 80 per cent.
Sir Michael said:
“The Prince of Wales takes a particularly long term view in the running of the Duchy and has probably increased its capital value by more than any of his predecessors.”
Clarence House has also explained that The Prince of Wales spends a substantial proportion of his money on official and charitable activities, and not on himself or his family.
Sir Michael said:
“The Prince of Wales helps to raise over £100 million for charitable causes each year. The Prince uses a substantial proportion of his income from the Duchy to help raise this funding and to support his charitable activities and public duties.”