The queen receives sovereign grants to perform her official duties as head of state and maintain authorized royal palaces. No member of the royal family receives any personal income from grants or any other public funds
The British Treasury has reacted to Prince Andrew's legal settlement fee and confirmed that no taxpayer money was used to pay for the multimillion-pound payment to settle the Virginia Giuffre lawsuit.
In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Treasury Department issued a statement to confirm, "No public funds have been used to pay legal or settlement fees. We can therefore confirm that HM Treasury is your Does not contain information within the scope of the request.
"It may be helpful if we explain how the principles of managing resources in UK public sector organizations are set forth in the Management of Public Money, which is published by the Treasury.
"It may also be helpful to explain that the Queen receives sovereign grants to carry out her official duties as head of state and to maintain authorized royal palaces. Grants or any other means to any member of the royal family." Private income does not come from public money.
The statement further read: "In exchange for the Sovereign Grant, the Queen passes the revenue from the Crown Estate (which she owns as the reigning monarch) to the Government. As a result, over the past 10 years, the Crown Estate has returned a total of £2.9 billion to the exchequer through the Consolidated Fund, invested in vital public services such as the NHS, transport, schools and defence, that benefit the UK as a whole.”
The Sovereign Grant Act 2011 ensures that the Royal House is fully accountable financially, its accounts are audited by the National Audit Office and placed before Parliament each year. This means that the accounts of the royal family are kept to the same standards of scrutiny and transparency as those of government departments.