Official

Official

Official duties and charitable activities - £7.997 million

Over 60 per cent of The Prince of Wales’s after-tax income from the Duchy of Cornwall was spent on official duties and charitable activities. Of the £7.997 million, staff costs accounted for £5.4 million, or 68 per cent.

The Prince of Wales employs 146.5 full-time equivalent staff.  Of these, 111 support Their Royal Highnesses, including Prince William and Prince Harry, in undertaking official duties and charitable activities, and 35.5 are personal, garden and farm staff.

Grant-In-Aid: London office and official residence – £0.714 million

Clarence House is the London office and official residence for The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Prince Harry. It is used for official dinners, receptions and meetings, as well as for offices for Their Royal Highnesses’ official staff. The principal rooms, which are on the ground floor of Clarence House, are open to the public from August until October annually, although closed for a few days during this period while The Prince and The Duchess are in residence. More than 2,000 people were entertained officially at Clarence House during the year, and there were 25,500 paying visitors.  The Household also has offices in other parts of St James's Palace.  The Property Services Grant-in-Aid meets the cost of the maintenance of Clarence House and of the other offices at St James's Palace.

Grant-In-Aid: Official travel by air and rail - £1.157 million

An important part of The Prince of Wales’s role as Heir to the Throne is, with The Duchess of Cornwall, to bring together people in different parts of the UK, to act as a focal point for national life and to represent the country overseas.

This involves a significant amount of travel that needs to be undertaken in a way which meets efficiency, security and presentational requirements. In 2007-08, Their Royal Highnesses travelled 36,834 miles to and from official engagements in the UK and overseas. This figure includes 19,252 miles of overseas travel. The cost of these journeys, excluding travel by car, amounted to £1.157 million in 2006-07 and was met by The Royal Travel by Air and Rail Grant-in-Aid.

This figure includes the variable costs only for journeys undertaken using 32 Squadron, The Queen’s helicopter and the Royal Train. This is because the fixed-wing aircraft and train costs are incurred irrespective of whether they are used and do not result from undertaking specific journeys. For a full explanation, see the Grant-in-Aid for Royal Family Travel by Air and Rail Annual Report 2007-08 – available on the British Monarchy website.

Grant-In-Aid Communications Support - £0.080 million

The Prince of Wales’s Office incurs expenditure developing and running an overall communications programme, maintaining a Press Office, updating and developing its website, providing general and educational information to the press and public, and providing Press Officers to assist the media at official engagements and visits. The majority of these costs are met by The Prince of Wales personally. However, costs incurred in assisting the media at engagements throughout the country, referred to as communications support, have traditionally been met from the Royal Communications and Information Grant-In-Aid.

Military secondees and overseas tours - £0.503 million

The Equerries (one full-time and two part-time) and three of the four Orderlies are seconded from the Armed Forces to assist The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall in undertaking official duties. The cost to the Ministry of Defence in 2007-08 was £351,303.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office meets the cost of official visits abroad by The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall (except for travel costs which are met from the Royal Travel by Air and Rail Grant-In-Aid). In 2007–08, Their Royal Highnesses undertook official tours to Uganda, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Montserrat, and Jamaica.  The Prince also made a visit on his own to Belgium.  These visits are undertaken at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to build on and strengthen the good relations which the UK enjoys with countries throughout the world. The cost of these visits to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office amounted to £151,773 in 2007-08.

Tax - £3.429 million

The Prince of Wales pays income tax voluntarily on the surplus of the Duchy of Cornwall, applying normal income tax rules and at current tax rates, and pays income tax on all other income and capital gains tax like any private individual. Tax for the year includes VAT.