Cost of royal engagements soared by £300k despite scaled-back appearances amid King and Kate’s health crises
The cost of royal engagements has soared by £300,000, despite a more scaled-back appearance amid the King and Princess Kate’s health crises.
The Royal Family has cut back on engagements this year amid the illnesses of King Charles and the Princess of Wales.
However, the cost of the engagements went up by £300,000, official accounts reveal.
Royal engagements racked up a £4.2million bill despite nearly 400 fewer visits and less foreign travel.
Royal engagement costs soared by £300k despite King and Kate’s health crisesGetty
The royals managed to attend 2,327 events, but this was down from 2,710 the previous year.
Despite the number of trips dropping by 15 per cent, costs of engagements increased by eight per cent overall.
A royal source put this down to double-digit inflationary pressure that has impacted goods and services in the last 12 months.
King Charles, 75, undertook 464 official engagements, down from 565 last year, with Queen Camilla performing 201.
The Royal Family at Sandringham for Christmas in 2022
Charles and Camilla also made fewer foreign trips, perhaps reflecting a need to stay closer to home due to illness.
There were 27 separate journeys by Royal Family members listed in the official report for 2023/24 where travel costs were at least £17,000, only eight of which involved the King.
The most expensive trip was the five-day state visit by the King and Queen to Kenya in October and November 2023, which had travel costs totalling £166,557.
The King was also involved in the second and third most expensive trips on the list: a three-day state visit to France with the Queen in September 2023, at £117,942, and a solo two-day journey on the royal train in June 2023 to Pickering in North Yorkshire, to mark the centenary of the Flying Scotsman, totalling £52,013.
Princess Kate joined the Royal Family at Christmas in 2023
The King was diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the year Getty
According to the annual Sovereign Grant report, the Coronation cost the Palace £800,000.
Meanwhile, the Palace generated £19.8m in income, over double that of the previous year as finances recovered to pre-Covid levels.
The royals dipped into the Sovereign Grant Reserve mainly to cover the Buckingham Palace refurbishment.
The National Audit Office said the £369m project “should set it up to deliver good value for money”, but it cautioned that “risks remain”.
