Description
Discussion on Royal Finances:Quotation: "I think they've seen that there's value to be on the front foot with all these things, instead of reacting," Craig Prescott, a constitutional law expert at Bangor University in Wales, said in an interview.
"And it ties in with a broader strategy, perhaps, where we've seen the King make contributions to food banks … open up some buildings at least for warm homes and Prince William's work on homelessness."
Those needs aren't solely supported by the Sovereign Grant. King Charles, as monarch, owns the Duchy of Lancaster, a portfolio that includes land, property and financial investments. The net income from the Duchy of Cornwall goes to Prince William, the heir to the throne.
"Just what that actually pays for is never quite set out in the same way because the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall are both treated as private estates, whereas the Sovereign Grant is treated as public money," said Prescott.
"So you have this fundamental confusion or overlap between what's public and what's private, which, of course, is the monarchy in the nutshell."
Some of these questions are really quite difficult questions of constitutional law, Prescott said.
For example, in order for the monarch to own the Balmoral and Sandringham estates, an act of the British Parliament had to be passed to allow a monarch to own land in their private capacity.
"So you can soon start to get into some very, very tricky territory," said Prescott.
"This could be clarified. I think it's in the monarchy's interest to clarify a lot of these things. But it would require co-operation from Parliament to do it. And … this is very technical stuff that is not a political priority."
| Period | 30 Jul 2023 |
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| Held at | CBC, Canada |