[guide.chat] queen's travel costs 6.1 million pounds
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2012 20:50:30 +0100
Queen's accounts reveal £6.1m travel bill for royal family
Official expenditure rose £200,000 to £32.3m, including almost £500,000 for
Prince Charles's tour of Middle East and Africa
Caroline Davies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 July 2012 18.53 BST
Prince Charles and Camilla in Tanzania. Charter flights for the tour last year
cost £460,387. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
A nine-day tour of the Middle East and Africa by Prince Charles and the Duchess
of Cornwall cost taxpayers almost half a million pounds, it has been revealed.
A detailed breakdown of the royal family's £6.1m official travel bill reveals
charter flights for the tour cost £460,387 after officials determined it was
not possible to fly scheduled.
Expensive charters by the Duke of York, as UK special representative for
international trade and investment, topped £350,000 last year, including
£81,000 for a six-day visit to Saudi Arabia and £89,915 in scheduled air and
charter costs for a six-day trip to China, Malaysia and Thailand.
The costs, detailed in Buckingham Palace accounts, show the Queen's official
expenditure increased last year by £200,000 on the previous year to £32.3m.
Sir Alan Reid, keeper of the privy purse, said spending had decreased by 26% in
real terms over the past three years if inflation was taken into account.
"When the chancellor of the exchequer announced his plans for the public
expenditure to reduce by 25% in real terms over a four-year period, the Queen
was very keen that the royal household should play its part in reducing its
expenditure accordingly," he said. The reduction was "a year ahead of the
public expenditure target", he added.
The Queen cost every man, woman and child in the UK 52p over the year. Wages
for her 300 staff, frozen for the past two years, fell £200,000 to £10m
compared to the previous year.
Travel costs increased by £100,000, despite the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
getting an upgrade from BA for their one-way flight from Los Angeles to London
at the end of their tour of North America. Even so, the bill was £51,410 in
business-class tickets for the couple and seven accompanying staff. As it
turned out, the inflight entertainment was not working, so the couple did not
get the full benefit of the upgrade.
Prince Andrew accumulated the highest charter bills after his older brother.
These included £10,470 for an overnight trip from Northolt to Belfast, Teesside
and back to Northolt. A scheduled return flight from Heathrow to Bangkok for
him and aides cost £29,946. His costs are expected to reduce next year after he
relinquished his post following intense scrutiny of his relationships with
controversial figures, including a convicted paedophile.
Thirteen royal train journeys cost a total of £900,000. The most expensive
undertaken by Charles ? an overnight regional tour from Ayr, near his Scottish
home in Birkhall, through Middlesbrough, Redcar, Burnley, Stoke-on-Trent to
London ? cost £38,016.
At an average of £42 a mile, the train is often criticised as too expensive.
Officials, who say they never try to give the impression it is the best value
for money, claim it is justified because it provides security and least
inconveniences the public.
The cost of Charles's travel was included in his accounts, published last week,
though no detailed breakdown was given then.
The pressure group Republic said royal aides were attempting to spin an
increase in spending as a real-terms decrease.
"Compare these travel costs with those of the prime minister, who spent less
than £500 travelling on Eurostar to a Paris meeting with former president
Sarkozy last year and just over £2,000 on a visit to Afghanistan to meet forces
and local leaders," said Republic's chief executive, Graham Smith, who
described the year-on-year increase as "indefensible and morally repugnant".
Of the £19,583 cost of flying Charles and Camilla from Aberdeen to spend a day
touring riot-torn London in August, he said: "It beggars belief that it costs
the taxpayer more to send Charles to east London than it does to send the prime
minister to Afghanistan."
Calling for a "cost-benefit analysis" of the trips undertaken by the royal
family, Smith said: "The costs published today are just the tip of the iceberg
? the true cost of the monarchy is likely to be over £200m each year."
The accounts, which detail only travel costs exceeding £10,000, revealed
£3,506,485 was spent on journeys less than £10,000. These included 153 journeys
by the Queen's S76 helicopter, leased at £1,435 per flying hour, and 62 by
charter helicopter.
As is usual, the finances did not disclose the amount of tax paid by the Queen
on her private income from the Duchy of Lancaster. An aide stressed it was a
"private matter" and joked: "Nor is she in any of these Jimmy Carr schemes."
The 2011-12 financial year was the last one in which the Queen's finances were
funded by the civil list and government grants. For the current financial year
the Queen's funding will come from a percentage of the profits of the Crown
Estate, increasing her income to a projected £36m next year.
Aides said the extra money had been earmarked for urgent repairs to the royal
palaces which had been put off for years because of a steady decrease in the
Queen's income in real terms. "It definitely won't be for any massive
improvement in the quality of life for the royal household," said one.
The Queen's year in figures
? The Queen undertook 325 public engagements in the UK and 45 overseas.
?The Duke of Edinburgh undertook 330 official engagements.
? Almost 3,000 official engagements in the UK and overseas were undertaken by
members of the royal family during the year to 31 March 2012.
? 72 journeys cost more than £10,000 each.
? There were 26 investitures for 2,500 people.
? The Queen entertained 33,000 people at five garden parties in Buckingham
Palace and Holyroodhouse. The parties cost £800,000.
? About 611,000 people bought tickets for the summer opening of Buckingham
Palace's state apartments.
? 3,269 tonnes of carbon are due to be offset at a cost of £36,000.
? The average number of staff paid from the civil list was 300 ? three fewer
than last year ? at a cost of £10m in salaries, pensions and national insurance.
? About £400,000 was paid for wine and spirits for entertaining.
? Royal stationery cost £300,000 ? up £100,000 on the previous year.
from
Vanessa The Google Girl.
my skype name is rainbowstar123
Other related posts:
- » [guide.chat] queen's travel costs 6.1 million pounds - vanessa
