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The Queen travels by carriage to open Parliament
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Head of State expenditure has reduced significantly over the past decade, from £87.3 million in 1991-92 to £37.3 million in 2006-07. In the year 2006-07 The Queen cost the taxpayer just 62 pence per person.

Head of State expenditure is the official expenditure relating to The Queen’s duties as Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth.

Head of State expenditure is met from public funds in exchange for the surrender by The Queen of the revenue from the Crown Estate. In the financial year to 31 March 2006 the revenue surplus from the Crown Estate paid to the Treasury amounted to £190.8 million.

Head of State expenditure for 2006-07 was £37.4 million. This was 0.03% less than in the previous year (decrease of 2.7% in real terms).

Head of State expenditure has reduced significantly over the past decade, from £87.3 million (expressed in current pounds) in 1991-92.

Head of State expenditure excludes the costs of Police and Army security and of Armed Services ceremonial, as figures are not available. 

Every year the Royal Household publishes an Annual Summary of Head of State expenditure, together a full report on Royal public finances. The two-page Annual Summary and full Royal Public Finances report can be downloaded as Acrobat pdf files at the bottom of this page.

A summary of Head of State expenditure met from public funds in the year to 31 March 2007 reads as follows:

2007 2006
£m £m
The Queen’s Civil List (figures are for calendar years 2007 and 2006) 12.2 11.2
Parliamentary Annuities 0.4 0.4
Grants-in-aid 20.6 20.3
Expenditure met directly by Government Departments and the Crown Estate 4.1 5.5


37.3 37.4

In the financial year 2006-2007 Head of State expenditure was £37.3 million. This compares with £87.3 million (expressed in current pounds) in 1991-92.

This means that The Queen as Head of State cost the taxpayer just 62 pence per person per year.

Downloads

Download a two-page annual summary of expenditure 2006-07 (pdf, 165kB)

The combined report can be downloaded in four parts in pdf format:
Part I: Introduction to Head of State expenditure 2006-07 (pdf, 406kB)
Part II: Civil List expenditure 2006 (pdf, 1MB)
Part III: Royal Travel Grant-in-Aid 2006-07 (pdf, 2MB)
Part IV: Property Services Grant-in-Aid 2006-07 (pdf, 3MB)