§ Kali MountfordTo ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the future of the grant-in-aid to the Royal Household for communications and information work. [79671]
§ The Prime MinisterSubject to the approval of Parliament, from 1 April 1999 the Government intend to merge the small grant-in-aid that was established last year on the COI vote with the property services grant-in-aid on the vote of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. This will avoid the circularity of the COI providing the Royal Household with the funds to purchase specialist services partly from itself. Communications and information expenditure will be separately identifiable in the Report of the merged grant-in-aid prepared by the Royal Household, copies of which the Secretary of State will place annually in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. As now, the Memorandum of Understanding will make clear that the Department does not have any responsibility for the functions and engagements undertaken by The Queen and Members of the Royal Family or for the Royal Household's decisions on the content of the communications and information provided from the grant-in-aid.
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