HC Deb 08 June 2004 vol 422 cc296-7W
Mr. Don Foster

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much public funding has been received by(a) the Royal Household and (b) the Royal Parks in each year since 1979; how much the Government plan to spend for each year until 2005–06; and if she will make a statement. [175272]

Estelle Morris

The following is the information from 1991–92 when the Grant in Aid arrangements were established for Property Services for the Occupied Royal Palaces, and from the same date for the royal parks.

Amount of public funding given by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport
£million
Royal parks The royal household
1991–92 25.4 23.94
1992–93 22.8 23.16
1993–94 23.2 19.80
1994–95 23.8 20.54
1995–96 24.7 20.44
1996–97 23.4 19.61
1997–98 21.7 16.41
1998–99 23.72 15.81
1999–2000 30.06 15.64
2000–01 26.97 15.52
2001–02 41.97 16.03
2002–03 27.04 15.92
2003–04 30.68 16.57
2004–051 28.03 14.97
2005–20061 27.09 15.62
1Planned funding

In 1999 the royal household took over the maintenance of Marlborough House on behalf of the Department, and also took on responsibility for royal communications and information previously funded by the Central Office of Information.

Marlborough House is occupied by the Commonwealth Secretariat and this expenditure is not a cost of the monarchy. Therefore, the table above shows the amount of grant in aid to the royal household excluding Marlborough House from 1999–2006. The royal household received an additional grant in aid for Marlborough House in 1999–2000 of 0.47 million, 2000–2001 of 0.57 million and from 2001–2002 until 2005–06 of 0.59 million.

To allow earlier delivery of some major capital projects, grant-in-aid to the royal household for 2003–04 was increased by £0.75 million and a corresponding reduction has been made in the 2004–05 allocation. Without this rescheduling, funding would have been £16.41 million in 2003–04 and £16.31 million in 2004–05

The royal parks are administered by the Royal Parks Agency. The figures quoted are taken from the DCMS Annual Report 2004, Vol. 1, (CM 6220). Expenditure is reported on a full resource consumption basis from 1998–99, whereas earlier figures are on a cash basis. Expenditure in 2001–02 includes £18.6 million for impairment of the Agency's fixed assets following a change of valuation policy.