Royals

What the Royals desk covers

The royals beat covers the royal households where they meet the public record: court cases, official finances, titles, property and statements from the palaces. Ceremony is the surface. The receipts are underneath.

Royal coverage is dominated by unnamed friends, aides and insiders. This desk does not run them. A royal story is built on what the households publish, what Parliament and the courts have said, and what the people involved said on the record, and a palace statement is treated as a statement from an interested party, never as an independent fact.

The records this beat is built on

Sovereign Grant annual reports

The audited accounts of the public money that funds the monarch's official work, published each year with the travel and property costs.

Duchy accounts

The annual reports of the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which show the private estates behind royal incomes.

Court judgments

Rulings in cases brought by or against members of the family, including privacy, press and freedom-of-information cases.

Parliamentary papers

Library briefings, committee reports and answers in Parliament on royal finance, security and titles.

House rules on this beat

Royal money stories separate public funding from private income, because they come from different accounts and are reported in different years. Titles are used as they currently stand. Health is not speculated on, and children are not written about beyond what the households themselves announce.