Wightman quizzes Ministers about "strange" funding relationship with Royal Household
Andy Wightman, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, today (20 Sep) used Culture Questions at Holyrood to quiz Scottish Ministers about their "strange" funding relationship with the Royal Household.
Mr Wightman has previously raised concerns that the public purse is paying for the cost of staff and maintenance at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, while the Royal Collection Trust keeps all the entrance money.
Today Andy pointed out to Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop that in 2016-17, public body Historic Environment Scotland incurred £890,000 in staffing costs partly to reimburse the Royal Household for staff, while the Royal Collection Trust received all of the £4.2 million in income from visitor charges.
Andy asked why public funds are being spent on the Palace whilst the government receives none of the visitor income it has historically kept.
Ms Hyslop said that the formal agreement between the Scottish Government and the Lord Chamberlain relating to how the Royal Household is funded is due for review.
Andy Wightman MSP said:
"The financial management of this historic Scottish property is pretty strange by anyone's standards. We need a new, transparent agreement to bring fairness to the situation.
“Given the Cabinet Secretary’s confused reply to my question, I will continue to probe the governance and finances of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and am looking forward to meeting the Chief Executive of Historic Environment Scotland in the coming weeks to discuss matters further."