1.These Explanatory Notes relate to the Sovereign Grant Act which received Royal Assent on 18 October 2011. They have been prepared by HM Treasury in order to assist the reader in understanding the Act. They do not form part of the Act and have not been endorsed by Parliament.
2.The Notes need to be read in conjunction with the Act. They are not, and are not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Act. So where a section or part of a section does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.
3.The Act provides new arrangements to support the Sovereign in Her official duties. The arrangements are intended to move from the current civil list arrangements which are reign-specific to a permanent regime which will cover all future Sovereigns, subject to each new Sovereign consenting to extend the Sovereign Grant provisions, and so to continue the payment of the hereditary revenues as directed in section 1 of the Civil List Act 1952, for the duration of his or her reign.
4.At present the government provides four grants to the Royal Household to support Her Majesty The Queen in Her official duties:
the civil list - an annual grant provided by Parliament direct from the Exchequer to meet the core official expenses of The Queen’s Household, so that The Queen can carry out her role as Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth;
a grant-in-aid for Royal Travel - the Department for Transport provides annual funding to the Royal Household to meet the costs of official travel by air and rail;
a grant-in-aid for the maintenance of the Royal Palaces: the Department for Culture, Media and Sport is responsible for maintaining the Royal residences and contracts with the Royal Household to do so.
a separate grant from that department covers expenditure on communication and information.
5.The Act develops a new streamlined system of support for Royal Household expenditure on Her Majesty’s official duties as sovereign. It puts a new unified Sovereign Grant in place of the existing grants. Like the current system of support, the new grant will not meet The Queen’s personal expenses.
6.The new Sovereign Grant is to be linked to the net income surplus (or profit) of the Crown Estate. The Crown Estate is the property of the Sovereign “in right of the Crown”, though its revenue is surrendered to the Exchequer in return for government support. This exchange has been made on the accession of each sovereign since George III in 1760.
7.The Sovereign Grant is to be paid each year through the Treasury Estimate. The Comptroller and Auditor General (or C&AG, who is the government’s external, “public auditor”) will audit the Royal Household’s use of the grant, which will be open to full Parliamentary scrutiny. In short, the Sovereign Grant will be treated like other government grants.
8.The Sovereign Grant will normally be set equal to 15% of the net income surplus (profit) of the Crown Estate for two years before. The Sovereign Grant is to be determined through a formula (set out in section 6). However, the Crown Estate will continue to pay its annual income surpluses in full into the Consolidated Fund. That is, the Sovereign Grant will not directly hypothecate a share of Crown Estate revenue.
9.Any Sovereign Grant unused in a given year will go into a Reserve Fund. Section 6 gives the Royal Trustees (a body corporate established by section 10 of the Civil List Act 1952, whose members are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Keeper of the Privy Purse) a duty when setting the grant to seek to prevent the reserve rising beyond about half of the amount of the annual net relevant resources used by the Royal Household. The Royal Trustees could do this by reducing the grant in that year.
10.The Trustees will also periodically review the formula for calculating Sovereign Grant and recommend change if they see fit. The Treasury will implement the Trustees’ recommendations through orders which will require the approval of the House of Commons.
11.The Sovereign Grant will resemble other government grants in a number of important ways: it will be paid through Estimates authorised by Parliament annually; its accounts will be published; they will be audited by the public auditor (the Comptroller and Auditor General) and subject to Parliamentary scrutiny, including by the Committee of Public Accounts.
12.The Royal Household publishes a substantial amount of information about its official business and management of its financial arrangements. Material is also available online at: www.royal.gov.uk.
13.Readers may also find it useful to consult the following documents:
Select Committee on The Civil List, Session 1971-72, 22 November 1971, HC 29
Royal Public Finances Annual Reports, 2003-04 to 2010-11
Report of the Royal Trustees, 22 June 2010, HC 140
Maintaining the Royal Palaces – Twenty-fourth Report of Session 2008-09, Public Accounts Committee, 2 June 2009, HC 201
Royal Travel by Air and Rail – Sixtieth Report of Session 2001-02, Public Accounts Committee, 17 July 2002, HC 529
14.This Act provides support for the Sovereign’s official duties. Her private income is not the subject of the Act. That private income includes the income of the Duchy of Lancaster, a private trust managed to provide for future monarchs, which flows into the Privy Purse. The Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, receives the income of the Duchy of Cornwall, the capital of which is also held in trust to support future Dukes.
15.Information about the two Duchies may be found at :
16.The Queen and the Prince pay income tax voluntarily on their private incomes. The policy on taxation of The Queen and Prince is explained in the Report of the Royal Trustees, and the accompanying Memorandum of Understanding on Royal Taxation, 11 February 1993, HC 464.
17.The Crown Estate’s role is defined by statute through the Crown Estate Act 1961. The Act places a duty on the Crown Estate Commissioners to “maintain and enhance its value and the return obtained from it, but with due regard to the requirements of good management”.
18.The Crown Estate’s land and property is held “in right of the Crown”, but all the revenues it raises, around £210 million in 2009-10, is passed directly to the Exchequer for the benefit of all UK citizens. The Crown Estate is not the Sovereign’s private property or that of the government. The Estate dates back to the reign of Edward the Confessor (reigned 1042 to 1066). Its net revenues are part of the hereditary revenues of the Crown. On his accession in 1760, George III surrendered these revenues (but not ownership of the capital assets) to the Exchequer in return for the civil list. Every subsequent monarch has done likewise.
19.The Act has 17 sections and 2 schedules. The sections fall under two headings: “The Sovereign Grant” and “Supplementary and General”.
20.Sections 1 to 8 set out the arrangements for a Sovereign Grant to be paid by the Treasury. It is to be determined as a percentage of the income account net surplus of the Crown Estate. A new Reserve Fund is being set up to cater for under-spends or over-spends in Sovereign Grant in any year. The sections provide how the grant is to be set by the Royal Trustees and how it is to be accounted for. The accounts of the grant and the Reserve Fund are subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. There are to be regular reviews by the Royal Trustees of whether the percentage of the Crown Estate remains appropriate. If not, the Treasury must lay an Order before the House of Commons to implement an increase or decrease in that percentage.
21.Section 9 provides for a reduction in the Sovereign Grant when the income of the Duchy of Cornwall is vested in the Sovereign. This occurs when there is no Duke of Cornwall. There is a new duty to provide a grant based on the amount of Duchy income to heirs to the throne who are not Dukes of Cornwall so that all heirs are entitled to similar financial support. The Sovereign Grant is also reduced where the Duke of Cornwall is under 18 - the Act provides in these circumstances for a share of Duchy income to be at the disposal of Her Majesty.
22.Sections 10 to 15 contain supplementary and general provisions relating to the repeal of the civil list and the creation of a single grant to support the Sovereign, the abolition of certain grants to certain other members of the Royal Household, the meaning of certain terms used in the Act and the commencement arrangements. The first Sovereign Grant is payable for financial year 2012-13.
23.Section 16 provides that the Sovereign Grant will cease six months after the monarch’s death (as the civil list does) unless an Order in Council is made within six months of a new reign.
24.Schedule 1 contains minor and consequential amendments and repeals. Schedule 2 contains transitional provisions and savings.
25.This Act extends to the whole of the United Kingdom.
26.This Act does not contain any provisions falling within the terms of the Sewel Convention. Because the Sewel Convention provides that Westminster will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament, if there are amendments relating to such matters which trigger the Convention, the consent of the Scottish Parliament will be sought for them.
27.This section defines the new grant and introduces the formula in section 6 which will specify its amount each year.
28.Subsection (1) provides for the Treasury to pay a Sovereign Grant for each financial year.
29.Subsection (2) specifies that the grant is to meet expenditure of the Royal Household in support of Her Majesty’s official duties. (See also section 13 which contains provisions about the meaning of references in the Act to those official duties and to the Royal Household.)
30.Subsection (3) sets Sovereign Grant for the financial year 2012-13 at £31m. This is equal to the level of civil list and grant support to the Royal Household in 2010-11, plus a supplement of £1m to meet the additional expenses of the Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
31.Subsection (4) provides that, from 2013-14, the amount of the grant is determined by the process set out in section 6.
32.Subsection (5) indicates that the amount of grant set in accordance with subsections (3) and (4) can be affected by section 9 (that is, in circumstances where income from the Duchy of Cornwall is received by the Sovereign).
33.Subsection (6) makes Parliament responsible for paying the Sovereign Grant, i.e. it will be made available through an Estimate which Parliament has voted to approve. In practice, the Sovereign Grant will be paid through the Treasury Estimate.
34.This section prescribes arrangements for the accounts and audit of the Royal Household. As with other areas of public expenditure, the Treasury defines how the Household’s resource accounts showing use of Sovereign Grant should be drawn up. The Comptroller and Auditor General (who is the government’s external auditor) will audit them.
35.Subsections (1) and (2) provide that the Keeper of the Privy Purse (The Queen’s Treasurer and the Royal Household’s Accounting Officer) must:
keep proper accounting records of the Royal Household’s activities in support of Her Majesty’s official duties;
prepare resource accounts; and
submit them to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
36.Subsection (3) specifies the basic content of the resource accounts while subsection (4) gives the Treasury power to make directions about their form, including additional material. The Treasury’s current intention is that the accounts direction will be similar to accounts directions used elsewhere in central government, with some contextual adjustments.
37.Subsection (5) instructs the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit the accounts and submit them and a report on the accounts to the Treasury.
38.Under subsection (6), the Treasury must then lay the auditor’s report and the accounts before Parliament and submit a copy to the Royal Trustees.
39.Subsection (7) defines the concept of the Royal Household’s “net relevant resources used” which the resource accounts are to record. It should be read with section 13(9) which limits the accounts to use of resources by the Royal Household in support of the Sovereign’s official duties. The concept nets off associated income such as fees and rents. The “net relevant resources used” would include resources derived from the Duchy of Cornwall when they are at the disposal of the Sovereign (see section 9) . Spending supported from the Privy Purse that is used for official duties would not be included because those are the Queen’s personal resources.
40.Subsection (8) provides the Comptroller and Auditor General with powers to scrutinise the Royal Household accounts and report on the economy, efficiency and value for money achieved in use of public funds.
41.This section sets up a Reserve Fund. It will contain Sovereign Grant not used for the year for which it is made. Similarly, in years when use of resources exceeds the amount of the grant, drawings from the reserve will supplement the Sovereign Grant.
42.Subsection (1) sets up the Reserve Fund. It will contain surplus Sovereign Grant and funds derived from it.
43.Subsection (2) gives the Royal Trustees discretionary powers to invest the Reserve Fund.
44.Subsections (3) and (4) direct how the reserve should be filled and drawn down – respectively to store excess unused grant and to supplement Sovereign Grant when necessary. The Royal Trustees are to be responsible for seeing that this process is performed properly. The reserve cannot be overdrawn.
45.After the audit for the year, the amounts transferred into or out of the reserve should align with the Royal Household’s resource use for the year. Unused grant must be paid into the Reserve Fund after the audit. If the Royal Household has used more resources than the Sovereign Grant has provided for the year, the Trustees must transfer to the Keeper an amount equal to the excess (or less if there is less in the Fund).
46.Subsection (5) allows interim payments to or from the reserve in anticipation of the amounts that will be required to balance the books at the year end. Subsection (6) ensures that these interim payments are to be taken into account in calculating whether any final payment is due later and, if so, the amount of any payment.
47.Subsection (7) permits the Royal Trustees to authorise loans from the reserve to finance capital expenditure. The Royal Household’s resource accounts will show use of these resources through depreciation so that the process is transparent.
48.Subsection (8) provides that payments to the Keeper from the Reserve Fund are not treated as additional income for the purposes of calculating the amount of net relevant resources used for a financial year.
49.This section provides for the accounts and audit of the Reserve Fund. As with the accounts of the Royal Household (section 2), the Treasury sets the form of the accounts and the Comptroller and Auditor General audits them.
50.Subsection (1) requires the Royal Trustees to keep proper accounting records of the Reserve Fund.
51.Subsection (2) requires the Royal Trustees to prepare timely accounts of the Fund for each financial year and to give them to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
52.Subsections (3) and (4) outline the content and form of the accounts, and confer a power on the Treasury to give directions about the accounts.
53.Subsection (5) requires the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit the accounts promptly and to submit the accounts and a report on them to the Treasury.
54.Under subsection (6), the Treasury must lay a copy of the report and statement of accounts before Parliament.
55.Subsection (7) provides the Comptroller and Auditor General with powers to scrutinise the Reserve Fund and report on the economy, efficiency and value for money achieved in use of public funds.
56.This section requires the Royal Trustees to prepare a report about the determination of the Sovereign Grant. They must calculate the amount of Sovereign Grant for the coming financial year and explain how it has been calculated. Because the report is published and laid in Parliament, the whole process will be transparent.
57.Subsection (1) requires the Royal Trustees to prepare a report determining the amount of Sovereign Grant for the following financial year and explaining how it has been calculated, following the process in section 6.
58.To prepare the report, the Royal Trustees must draw on audited and published information about the previous financial year relating to: the Sovereign Grant (section 2); the Reserve Fund (section 4); and the Crown Estate. When all the relevant, audited financial information is available, subsection (2) requires the Trustees to prepare the report promptly.
59.Subsections (3) and (4) provide that the Royal Trustees must give a copy of the report to the Treasury who must lay it before Parliament.
60.This section sets out how the standard formula for Sovereign Grant is to operate.
61.There are five steps to be followed. They are set out in subsection (1).
Step 1 specifies the essential calculation:
The starting point is 15% of the income account net surplus for the Crown Estate for the “base year”.
The base year is defined in the step as the financial year two years before the year for which the grant is being set.
Step 2 rounds this amount up to the nearest £100,000.
Step 3 specifies an amount which is the greater of the Step 2 amount and the amount of the Sovereign Grant for the year before the year for which the grant is being set.
Step 4 applies only if the value of the Reserve Fund at the end of the base year is more than half of the net relevant resources used for that year. If this happens, the Royal Trustees may reduce the Step 3 amount by such amount as they consider appropriate - see the commentary on subsection (4) below.
Step 5 provides that the amount of Sovereign Grant is the Step 3 amount, or if Step 4 applies, the Step 3 amount reduced by any reduction made under Step 4.
62.The amounts of the Sovereign Grant will depend on Crown Estate profit from two years before so that the calculation can be made at the time the grant is set. The Treasury Estimate for a given year is drawn up and laid in Parliament shortly before the year in question. By that stage the most recent audited accounts for both the Crown Estate and the Royal Household will be for the previous year, ie two years before the year for which the new Estimate prescribes the grant.
63.Subsection (2) provides that the adjusted value of the Reserve Fund at the end of the financial year means the value of that fund at the end of that year, taking into account any post-year adjustments. Subsection (3) provides that post-year adjustments that are already reflected in the audited accounts of the Reserve Fund are not counted twice as part of calculating the adjusted value.
64.Subsection (4) applies if the Royal Trustees have the power to reduce future Sovereign Grant under Step 4. The reduction they make should be made on the basis that with the reduction the Reserve Fund, at the end of the year, will stand at about half of the net relevant resources used in that year.
65.This section requires the Royal Trustees to consider at fixed intervals whether the percentage in section 6(1) remains appropriate.
66.Under subsection (1), the Royal Trustees must review whether the percentage set out in Step 1 of section 6(1) remains appropriate.
67.Under subsection (2), the Royal Trustees must prepare a report setting out and explaining the conclusions of their review, including a recommendation for a different percentage if they think one justified.
68.Subsections (3) and (4) provide that the Royal Trustees must give a copy of the report to the Treasury, who must lay it before Parliament.
69.Subsection (5) requires regular reviews, starting from 1 April 2012. The first review must take place after 4 years, so it will begin in Spring 2016. Thereafter a review is required every 5 years.
70.This section applies if the Royal Trustees’ review calls for a different percentage to be used in the formula in section 6. It requires the Treasury to implement the conclusions of the review.
71.Under subsection (2), the Treasury must lay an order to amend the percentage in section 6(1). Subsection (3) requires the affirmative Parliamentary procedure (in the House of Commons only) to approve any increase in the percentage. Subsection (4) provides for the negative procedure (again, Commons only) for an order that decreases the percentage.
72.This section adjusts the Sovereign Grant where the Duke of Cornwall is under 18 and where there is no Duke of Cornwall.
73.When the Duke of Cornwall is under 18, the amount of Sovereign Grant in each year or part year is reduced by 90% of the income account net surplus of the Duchy of Cornwall for the period. A corresponding amount of the Duchy’s income is placed at the disposal of Her Majesty. Duchy income does not increase the Sovereign’s resources because the Sovereign Grant is reduced proportionately. That arrangement reflects the current statutory provisions for the civil list.
74.Where the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall are vested in Her Majesty (because there is no Duke of Cornwall) the section provides for the amount of the Sovereign Grant to be reduced by the amount of the income account net surplus of the Duchy for that period.
75.When Duchy revenues are vested in Her Majesty, the section also provides for a grant to be made by the Treasury to the heir to the throne (who would not be the Duke of Cornwall). Such heirs, if they are adult, would receive a grant equivalent to the amount by which the Sovereign Grant has been reduced on account of the Duchy revenues. If they are under 18, they receive 10% of that amount. The net effect is broadly that an adult heir to the throne, whether or not that person is also Duke of Cornwall, receives the equivalent of the net income of the Duchy. If the heir is a minor, the equivalent of 10% of the Duchy’s net income is received.
76.Subsection (1) applies when the Duke of Cornwall is under 18. When that happens, the Sovereign Grant is reduced by 90% of the income account net surplus of the Duchy. An equivalent amount of Duchy income is placed at the disposal of the Sovereign to offset that reduction.
77.Subsection (2) provides that where the Duchy of Cornwall is vested in Her Majesty the amount of the Sovereign Grant for that year is reduced by an amount equal to the net income of the Duchy of Cornwall for the relevant period. When that happens, the heir to the throne is to receive a grant payable by the Treasury.
78.Subsection (3) sets the amount of the Treasury grant payable under subsection (2). If the heir is aged 18 or over, the grant is equal to the reduction in Sovereign Grant that is made for the period. If the heir is under 18, the grant is 10% of that amount.
79.Subsection (4) provides that where the grant is payable to an heir who is under 18 it will be paid to the Royal Trustees who are to hold it on trust for the heir on such terms as the Treasury direct.
80.Subsection (5) provides that any reduction in the amount of the Sovereign Grant under section 9 is to be ignored for certain purposes such as calculating the need for payments into and out from the Reserve Fund. That is because any reduction in the Sovereign Grant to take account of income the Sovereign receives from the Duchy does not affect the overall resources at the Sovereign’s disposal. Rather it means the same amount of resources are being provided from two sources not one.
81.Subsection (6) provides that income from the Duchy of Cornwall is treated as part of the Sovereign Grant in sections 2(7)(b) and 11 of the Act where the amount of the Sovereign Grant has been reduced under section 9. That is because in these circumstances Duchy income is a replacement for Sovereign Grant and needs to be treated as such.
82.Subsection (7) provides that for the purposes of determining the income account net surplus for part of a financial year, the income net surplus for the whole year is to be apportioned equally in respect of each day of that year.
83.Subsection (8) is required to work out how much the Treasury grant should be.
84.Subsection (9) allows the Treasury to make the reductions required by this section, and to pay the grant under this section, on the basis of an estimate of the net income of the Duchy of Cornwall for a financial year or part financial year until the accounts of the Duchy of Cornwall have been submitted to the Treasury in accordance with section 2 of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall (Accounts) Act 1838. Any necessary adjustments may be made after those accounts have been submitted.
85.Subsection (10) makes the Treasury grant payable out of money provided by Parliament.
86.This section repeals certain financial provisions in the Civil List Acts of 1952, 1972 and 1975.
87.The following provisions are repealed by this section.
Section 4 of the Civil List Act 1952, which makes provision for Her Majesty’s younger children.
Section 6 of the Civil List Act 1952, which makes provision for the widow of the Duke of Cornwall.
Section 2(8) of the Civil List Act 1972, which makes provision for certain widows of other members of the Royal Family.
Section 3 of the Civil List Act 1972, which makes provision for the official expenses of members of the Royal Family who are not otherwise provided for from the civil list.
Section 6 of the Civil List Act 1972, which makes provision for increasing the civil list, the payments to certain other members of the Royal Family and the total cost of honorific pensions.
The Civil List Act 1975, which makes provision for payments to supplement the civil list, payments to members of the Royal Family (including those not otherwise provided for) and honorific pensions and for those supplements to be paid out of money provided by Parliament.
88.This section removes the responsibility of the Secretary of State to maintain the Royal Palaces and related land that are in future maintained by Her Majesty out of the Sovereign Grant.
89.The following Royal Palaces are currently maintained by the Royal Household using grant-in-aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Estimate: Buckingham Palace; St James’s Palace, Clarence House and Marlborough House Mews; the residential and office areas of Kensington Palace; the Royal Mews and Royal Paddocks at Hampton Court; and Windsor Castle and buildings in the Home and Great Parks at Windsor. They are usually referred to as the “Occupied Royal Palaces”. Her Majesty (through the Royal Household) is to maintain them out of the Sovereign Grant. For more information on the Occupied Royal Palaces, see the annual reports of Royal Public Finances mentioned in paragraph 13.
90.This section explains the meaning of certain terms used in the Act.
91.Subsection (1) explains that “audited net relevant resources” used is the amount of net relevant resources used as stated in the audited Royal Household accounts. The term “the value of the Reserve Fund” means the statement of the value of the Reserve Fund in the audited accounts of that Fund. The meaning of “the income account net surplus of the Crown Estate” is the amount of that surplus in the Crown Estate’s audited accounts (which is also the amount the Crown Estate pays into the Exchequer each year).
92.Subsections (2) and (3) provide that if the audit reports for the above accounts contain qualifications, however expressed, that might affect any of the amounts or values specified in subsection (1), the Comptroller and Auditor General must specify amounts or values to be used instead for the calculations required by the Act.
93.This section explains various terms used in the Act.
94.Subsection (2) provides that “The Comptroller” means the Comptroller and Auditor General.
95.Subsection (3) provides that “financial year” means a year beginning with 1 April.
96.Subsection (4) provides that “the financial year 2012-13” means the financial year beginning with 1 April 2012.
97.Subsection (5) provides that “the Keeper” means the Keeper of the Privy Purse.
98.Subsection (6) provides that “the Reserve Fund” means the Fund established under section 3.
99.Subsection (7) defines “the Royal Trustees” as the body corporate established by section 10 of the Civil List Act 1952. The members of that body are the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Keeper of the Privy Purse.
100.Subsection (8) provides that references to the support of the Sovereign’s official duties includes maintenance of royal palaces and related land.
101.Subsection (9) limits the meaning of the Royal Household in the Act to the Household’s activities in support of the Sovereign’s official duties.
102.Subsection (10) defines the use of resources as meaning their expenditure, consumption or reduction in value. That is the same as in section 27 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 which applies to the resource accounts of government departments.
103.This section introduces Schedule 1 which contains minor and consequential amendments and repeals.
104.This section provides that the Act will come into force on 1 April 2012. It also introduces Schedule 2 which provides for certain transitional arrangements and savings.
105.The long-standing convention is for the civil list settlement of each sovereign (including the monarch’s surrender of the hereditary revenues) to last for 6 months after the end of his or her reign. This process allows time to prepare provision for the next sovereign. Subsection (1) repeats this traditional approach.
106.Subsections (3) and (4) provide an alternative approach. On the demise of the monarch, his or her successor will need continuing support arrangements. Subsection (3) therefore allows a new Sovereign to agree to extending the Sovereign Grant provisions, and so to continuing the payment of the hereditary revenues as directed in section 1 of the Civil List Act 1952, for the duration of his or her reign plus 6 months. The Sovereign signifies that agreement, with the advice of the Privy Council, by an Order in Council. The Order has no parliamentary procedure. It must be made within 6 months of the death of the previous sovereign. If no Order is made, the Sovereign Grant provisions will expire six months after the end of the previous monarch’s reign.
107.Subsection (4) amends section 1(1) of the Civil List Act 1952 to create a link to section 1. Since 1760, each successive monarch has agreed to exchange the hereditary revenues of the Crown at the start of their reign in return for financial support from the Consolidated Fund. The amendment links the surrender of the hereditary revenues with the duration of the Sovereign Grant.
108.Subsection (5) provides that the provisions for honorific pensions paid under section 5 of the Civil List Act 1837 have permanent effect.
109.Subsection (6) provides that pensions paid under the Civil List Act 1837 are to be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund.
110.This Schedule contains various tidying and consequential provisions, including a number of repeals.
111.Paragraph 1 repeals the Civil List Audit Act 1816. Under that Act the Treasury appointed an auditor for the civil list. Provision is made under sections 2 and 4 of this Act for the public auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General, to audit both Royal Household resources used for Her Majesty’s official business and the Reserve Fund.
112.Paragraphs 2 to 4 amend sections 5 and 6 of the Civil List Act 1837 to make permanent the current position that honorific pensions are no longer paid from the civil list.
113.Paragraph 5 omits section 14 of that Act because it is spent.
114.Paragraph 6 amends the Crown Lands Act 1936 to insert a reference to ‘section 1 of the Sovereign Grant Act 2011’ so that the powers in question remain contingent on the continued surrender of hereditary revenues by the Sovereign.
115.This Act is repealed by paragraph 7 because none of its provisions are required any more.
116.This Act is repealed by paragraph 8 because it has no effect.
117.The Civil List Act 1952 is amended to take account of provisions in this Act.
118.Paragraph 10 omits section 2 of the Act which is superseded by the abolition of the civil list and the new provisions in section 9 of this Act.
119.Paragraph 11 omits section 5 of the Act as that section ceased to have effect on the death of HRH the Princess Margaret.
120.Paragraph 12 extends section 7 of the Act to allow for retirement allowances granted by a future monarch in respect of a person who has been a member of the Royal Household.
121.Paragraph 13 updates the provisions for charging payments on the Consolidated Fund to remove civil list payments that are being ended.
122.Paragraph 14 alters the constitution of the Royal Trustees in section 10 of the Civil List Act 1952 to recognise that the functions of the Royal Trustees are not limited to functions under that Act.
123.Paragraph 15 omits section 11 of that Act as it is no longer needed.
124.Paragraph 16 omits references to the civil list in section 12 of that Act because the civil list is being abolished.
125.Paragraph 17 removes references to honorific pensions ending six months after the end of a reign. Section 16(5) in this Act provides that the provisions relating to honorific pensions, paid under sections 5 of the Civil List Act 1837, will have permanent effect.
126.Paragraph 18 updates a reference to the Civil List Act 1952 in the Forestry Act 1967 to ensure that the compensation arrangements mentioned there remain contingent on the ending of the surrender of hereditary revenues by the Sovereign.
127.Paragraphs 19 to 21 amend the Family Law Reform Act 1969 to omit references to the Duke of Cornwall and other of Her Majesty’s children. The meaning of the minority of a Duke of Cornwall is covered by section 9 of this Act.
128.Paragraphs 22 to 28 amend the Civil List Act 1972.
129.Paragraph 23 omits section 1 of the Act in its entirety. The civil list is being replaced by the Sovereign Grant in section 1 of this Act.
130.Paragraph 24 omits provisions which are either superseded by provisions in this Act or are spent.
131.Paragraph 25 omits the second sentence of section 4(1) of that Act which relates to civil list pensions. It removes a power to increase the additional annual cost of such pensions from the limit set out in section 5 of the Civil List Act 1837.
132.Paragraph 26 omits section 5 of that Act. This Act replaces the civil list with a Sovereign Grant so the Royal Trustees will no longer need to report on the civil list arrangements.
133.Paragraph 27 omits section 7 of that Act which is spent because no payments will be made under the Act.
134.Paragraph 28 omits interpretational and transitional provisions that are no longer needed.
135.Paragraph 29 removes the entry of the Auditor of the Civil List from the list of offices that are disqualified from membership of the House of Commons. That office is abolished by paragraph 1 of this Schedule.
136.Paragraph 30 removes the entry of the Auditor of the Civil List from the list of offices that are disqualified from membership of the Northern Ireland Assembly. That office is abolished by paragraph 1 of this Schedule.
137.Paragraph 31 substitutes ‘the Sovereign Grant’ for ‘the Queen’s Civil List’ in section 171(3) of that Act.
138.Paragraph 32 provides that pensions provided under section 5 of the Civil List Act 1837 or section 7 of the Civil List Act 1952 are included as retirement pension income for the purposes of the State Pension Credit Act 2002.
139.Paragraph 33 provides that pensions provided under section 5 of the Civil List Act 1837 or section 7 of the Civil List Act 1952 are included as retirement pension income for the purposes of the State Pension Credit Act (Northern Ireland) 2002.
140.Paragraph 1 applies the accounts provisions in sections 2 and 4 from the financial year 2012-13 onwards, i.e. from the start of the Sovereign Grant.
141.Paragraph 2 provides transitional arrangements for the first year in which the formula for Sovereign Grant in section 6 is to apply, which is 2013-14.
142.Paragraph 3 makes transitional provisions for the civil list, which is paid by calendar year. The civil list is to continue for the first three months of 2012 until financial year 2012-13 begins on 1 April 2012. The saving here allows adjustments to be made to payments made in respect of those three months after the repeal of the civil list provisions.
143.Paragraph 4 ensures that the audit powers for the civil list continue until all the audit duties for the civil list have been completed, including after the Civil List Audit Act 1816 has been repealed on 1 April 2012 by this Act.
144.Paragraph 5 provides that the disqualifications under the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 and the Northern Ireland Assembly Disqualification Act 1975 remain in force until all the duties of the Auditor of the Civil List have been completed.
145.Paragraph 6 provides that sections 1(3) to (7) of the 1972 Act (which allow adjustments between the civil list and the civil list reserve) continue to have effect until any necessary adjustments have been completed.
146.Paragraph 7 provides that any property held by the Royal Trustees will form part of the new Reserve Fund.
147.Paragraph 8 provides that amendments to section 5 of the Civil List Act 1837 and section 3 of the Civil List Act 1952 remain in force.
148.The provisions of the Act come into force on 1 April 2012.
149.The following table sets out the dates and Hansard references for each stage of this Act’s passage through Parliament.
| STAGE | DATE | HANSARD REFERENCE |
|---|---|---|
| House of Commons | ||
| Gracious message | 29 June 2011 | Vol. 530 Col. 976 |
| Resolution | 30 June 2011 | Vol. 530 Cols. 1144-1178 |
| Introduction | 30 June 2011 | Vol. 530 Col. 1178 |
| Allocation of time | 14 July 2011 | Vol. 531 Cols. 526-530 |
| Second reading | 14 July 2011 | Vol. 531 Col. 530 |
| Committee | 14 July 2011 | Vol. 531 Cols. 531-570 |
| Third reading | 14 July 2011 | Vol. 531 Cols. 570-583 |
| House of Lords | ||
| Gracious Message | 29 June 2011 | Vol. 728 Col. 1751 |
| Motion for an Humble Address | 30 June 2011 | Vol. 728 Col. 1855-1856 |
| Introduction | 14 July 2011 | Vol. 729 Col. 964 |
| Second reading | 3 October 2011 | Vol. 730 Cols. 960-973 |
| Committee negatived | 3 October 2011 | Vol. 730 Col. 973 |
| Third reading | 3 October 2011 | Vol. 730 Col. 973 |
| Royal Assent | 18 October 2011 | Commons: Vol. 533 Col.773 |
| Lords: Vol. 731 Col. 155 | ||