Royal Power

Following on from an earlier blog SOYMB discovers more royal power

Since 2005, ministers from six departments have sought the Prince of Wales' consent to draft bills on everything from road safety to gambling and the London Olympics. The prince's power applies when a new bill might affect his own interests, in particular the Duchy of Cornwall, a private property empire that last year provided him with an income. It is headed by the prince with a £200,000-a-year chief executive, Bertie Ross, who oversees the equivalent of 91 full-time staff. While investors everywhere have been buffeted by financial turmoil in recent years, the value of the Duchy portfolio has risen from £618m in 2006-7, to £712m in 2010-11. The prince's annual income from the duchy has risen over the same period from £15.2m to £17.8m. it owns substantial residential and commercial properties such as Poundbury, a mock-Georgian new town in Dorset and the Franklin Wilkins building leased to Kings College London, more than 2,000 hectares of woodland, holiday cottages in Cornwall, and the Oval cricket ground also in London. Duchy tenants in the village of Newton St Loe, outside Bath, this year complained to the prince that they had been "fobbed off", "patronised", "misled" and "dealt with in an overly aggressive manner" by duchy representatives who handled their complaints about its plans to build 2,000 homes on neighbouring farmland. Some were afraid to speak their minds for fear of finding the terms of their tenancies changed.

Neither the government nor Clarence House will reveal what, if any, alterations to legislation Charles has requested, or exactly why he was asked to grant consent to such a wide range of laws.

The title and property of the Duchy of Cornwall were created in 1337 by Edward III, and were given by royal charter to his son, the Prince of Wales. Under the charter, the duchy always belongs to the sovereign's eldest son who is the heir apparent. If the heir apparent dies without leaving children, the property of the duchy reverts to the crown. So although the duchy belongs to the Prince of Wales, who is also the Duke of Cornwall, there is a theoretical possibility that it could revert to the sovereign, who therefore has a contingent personal interest in matters that affect the property of the duchy. Bills in parliament that would affect the sovereign's private interests (or the royal prerogative) require the Queen's consent; by extension, therefore, bills that would affect the duchy also require consent, and since the Prince of Wales administers the duchy he also performs the function of considering and granting relevant requests for consent. The consents are required as a matter of parliamentary procedure, as a method of protecting crown prerogative and private interests. The sovereign and the Prince of Wales are the only members of the royal family whose consent is required for bills that affect their private interests. Where a bill affects the "hereditary revenues, personal property or other interests" of the Duchy of Cornwall, then "the consent of … the Prince of Wales must be signified in both houses [of parliament] before the bill is passed," Cabinet Office guidance states.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/30/prince-charles-offered-veto-legislation
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/30/prince-charles-ancient-charter-consent?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/30/prince-of-wales-veto-legislation