Who Has Oversight of the Finances?

The coordinator of the separate sources of monies for the maintenance of the monarchy and the person who has overall responsibility for the management of the Sovereign’s affairs is the Keeper of the Privy Purse. He and the Deputy Treasurer are responsible for all aspects of the practical day to day functioning of the monarchy’s finances. None of the money come from direct ‘taxpayer funded’ sources as all are either private to the Queen or hers by right as Sovereign. Both the Crown Estate and the Duchy of Lancaster are profit making estates and in the case of the former, returns vast sums to the government for its own use. The monarchy, with one exception in respect to HRH Duke of Edinburgh, is entirely self-funding.

Accounting is carried out on an annual basis and the figures are publicly available. As our monarchy is a constitutional or parliamentary monarchy, the government keeps an eye on the running of the three estates (Crown, Lancaster, Cornwall) to ensure that those responsible are working for the good of the long term survival of the estates and by extension, for the good of the monarch. In Australia the Sovereign’s representative, the Governor-General does likewise and the situation is the same with the State Governors and parliaments. In summary if the three Estates in the UK are managed well then the monarchy can be funded adequately and HM Treasury will gain as well.