LONDON - QUEEN Elizabeth II and the royal family cost British taxpayers 66 pence (S$1.79) per person last year, according to official accounts released on Friday.
The 40-million-pound (S$109-million) total from the year to March 31 is up from 37.3 million the previous year and represents an increase of four pence per British taxpayer on that figure.
The sum includes royal travel and the civil list - the money used to cover the cost of the queen's official duties - and officials explained the rise by saying there had been a backlog of renovation works at royal palaces.
'Expenditure on royal travel, which will vary from year to year, also increased in response to the number of overseas visits undertaken at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and UK Trade and Investment,' said Sir Alan Reid, the keeper of the privy purse.
The queen's most expensive visit was to the United States last year marking the 400th anniversary of the US's first permanent English settlement.
Sir Reid said that the backlog of building work was due to a freeze in funding from the government for maintenance of palaces. He put the figure required for spending at 32 million pounds. -- AFP
