38656356325923

Stationery and office equipment 46,000
Orders of Knighthood 25,000
Refund of purchase tax 5,000
Equerries 22,000
Royal yacht 839,000
Queen’s Flight 700,000
Postal and telecommunications (paid by Post Office Corporation) 52,000
Total £ 2,932,000
(The Crown Estate payments to the Consolidated Fund were £3,800,000.) 2
The royal finances are divided into three parts: 1. The Civil List paid for by the
Government, which meets the cost of staff and expenses incurred wherever the court is
in residence, in provision for the Queen as head of state, charity donations and
contributions to certain other members of the royal family. 2. The Privy Purse, which
meets the cost of private expenditure arising from the Queen’s responsibilities as head of
state, pensions for employees, maintenance of Sandringham and Balmoral, charity and
welfare and amenity of members of the royal household. (The Queen had made
considerable donations from her private resources to expenses of other members of the
royal family, and on this occasion offered to refund £60,000 to the Privy Purse.) The
Duchy of Lancaster, then a tax-free estate belonging to the Queen as sovereign,
contributed a proportion of its income to the Privy Purse, payments which had risen
from £110,000 in 1952 to £300,000 in 1970. 3. Elizabeth’s private income, exempt both
from estate duty and income tax.
At Committee sessions a good deal of criticism was aroused at the proposals for
increased annuities chargeable to the Civil List for members of the royal family apart
from the Queen: Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, £95,000 from £70,000; Duke of
Edinburgh, £65,000 from £40,000; Princess Anne, £15,000 from £6,000; Princess
Margaret, £35,000 from £15,000; Duke of Gloucester, £45,000 from £35,000. In addition
it was proposed that younger sons from the age of eighteen and before marriage should
receive £20,000, rising after marriage to £50,000; daughters from the age of eighteen
£15,000 and after marriage £35,000; a widow of the Prince of Wales, £60,000; and
provision for the Duchess of Gloucester or younger sons’ widows of £20,000. A global
sum of £60,000 was to be allowed for remaining members of the family. The case for the
annuities being paid for out of the Civil List was that those members of the royal family
shared the royal duties and because of their close relationship to the sovereign were
precluded from any gainful employment. It was pointed out that Elizabeth had had to