Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces
Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009-06-02

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13: 9780215530493

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The Occupied Royal Palaces Estate (the Estate), which includes Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, is held in trust for the nation and used to support the official duties of The Sovereign. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is accountable to Parliament for the upkeep of the Estate, but has delegated day to day responsibility to the Royal Household. The annual grant to maintain and run the Palaces has remained at around £15 million since 2000-01 (a 19 per cent real terms reduction). An increase in running costs over the same period means there has been a 27 per cent fall in maintenance expenditure to £11.1 million in 2007-08. The Department has set the Household an objective which focuses on the condition of the Estate, but none of the key indicators measures performance against it, and the Household does not have a comprehensive analysis of the condition of the Estate. In addition, a £32 million maintenance backlog has built up and important work has been deferred. The Department and the Household have yet to agree criteria for assessing the backlog and develop a plan for managing it. In addition, the Household does not have a strategy for managing its Estate. The Royal Collection Trust (the Trust) manages visitor admission to the Palaces and receives the income generated, which in 2007-08 totalled £28 million. Buckingham Palace is open for 63 days because of the number of official engagements and the costs involved. Other buildings such as the White House and Houses of Parliament manage to open for most of the year, despite similar obligations and security concerns.

Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces
Maintaining the Occupied Royal Palaces

Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9780102954463

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The Occupied Royal Palaces Estate is held in trust for the nation and is used to support the official duties of the Sovereign. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is ultimately responsible for the upkeep of the Estate but in 1991 delegated to the Royal Household the responsibility for running and maintaining the Estate. The Household does so through the Property Services Department and receives grant-in-aid, £15 million in 2007-08, broadly the same level of funding as in 2000-01, which is a reduction of 19 per cent in real terms. This report examines how the Property Section plans and delivers its maintenance work and the impact the Property Section's running costs and income generated from the Estate had on the funding available to spend on maintenance. The DCMS does not currently have a clear basis for assessing the extent to which its aim of maintaining the Palaces to a standard consistent with their royal, architectural and historic status is being achieved. The Property Section has identified a backlog of maintenance work, but there is not yet an agreement between the parties about how the backlog should be measured or how to manage it. The Property Section has recently strengthened its approach to planning maintenance work and put in place the key elements of a sound maintenance strategy. In 2007-08 the Property Section generated almost £3 million from visitors to Windsor Castle and from renting out accommodation on the estate. The Royal Household's approach to generating income could be strengthened by developing a formal Estate strategy.

National Audit Office - The Royal Household: The Sovereign Grant - HC 722
National Audit Office - The Royal Household: The Sovereign Grant - HC 722

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2013-10-10

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 9780102986181

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Financial support from the Government to the Sovereign was consolidated from 1 April 2012 into the Sovereign Grant and the existing Civil List reserve fund was transferred into a Sovereign Grant Reserve. The Sovereign Grant Act 2011 set the initial Grant for 2012-13 at £31 million. For subsequent years the level of the Grant is based on a percentage, initially 15 per cent, of the net income of the Crown Estates in the year two years prior to the funding year. Following this formula the Grant is set to rise to £36.1 million in 2013-14 and is likely to be £37.9 million in 2014-15. The Act also introduced new arrangements to strengthen the accountability and scrutiny of the Household for the spending on The Queen's official business. The Comptroller and Auditor General is the statutory auditor of the Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve accounts which are laid before Parliament. The first Annual Report and Accounts for the Sovereign Grant and Reserve Fund, covering 2012-13, were published on 27 June 2013 (HC 212, session 2013-14, ISBN 9780102984248), and form the basis of this memorandum. The memorandum for the Public Accounts Committee sets out: the changes to the Household's funding arrangements and the introduction of the Sovereign Grant; the calculation of the Sovereign Grant, the Reserve Fund and the impact on the Household's management of its finances; the Household's financial management of the Sovereign Grant.

The Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve annual report and accounts 2012-13
The Sovereign Grant and Sovereign Grant Reserve annual report and accounts 2012-13

Author: Royal Trustees

Publisher: Stationery Office

Published: 2013-06-27

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 9780102984248

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The Sovereign Grant Act 2011 which came into effect from 1 April 2012 consolidated the funding provided to support the official duties of the Queen and maintain the Occupied Royal Palaces that up to 31 March 2012 had been provided under the Civil List and the Grants-in-aid for the maintenance of the Occupied Royal Palaces, Royal Travel and Communications and Information. The Queen's official expenditure is met from public funds in exchange for the surrender by The Queen of the revenue from the Crown Estate. The Sovereign Grant was set at 31.0 million pounds for 2012-13. Official expenditure met by this Grant in 2012-13 amounted to 33.3 million pounds, an increase of 0.9 million (2.6 percent) in absolute terms and a decrease of 0.2 percent in real terms compared to the previous year. The equivalent of the excess of expenditure over the Sovereign Grant of 2.3 million in 2012-3 was drawn down from the Sovereign Grant Reserve. From 2013-14 the Sovereign Grant will be calculated based on 15 percent of the income account net surplus of the Crown Estate for the financial year two years previous. The Crown Estate surplus for the financial year 2011-12 amounted to 240.2 million pounds thereby producing a Sovereign Grant of 36.1 million for 2013-14

Report of the Royal Trustees
Report of the Royal Trustees

Author: Royal Trustees

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-06-22

Total Pages: 76

ISBN-13: 9780102965124

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Provides that where the annuity payable under the Act exceeds the Civil List expenditure for the year, the excess may be paid to the Royal Trustees to be accumulated by them and applied to meet deficiencies in future years.