Since the Queen's funeral last September, Charles has carried out an estimated 257 engagements. Yet analysis shows this adds up to less than the equivalent of seven weeks of full-time work for the year.
Key findings:
- The full-time equivalent is based on an assumption each engagement takes about an hour, but many are far shorter.
- Just forty engagements (excluding his visit to Germany) were traditional, public visits where Charles might meet people in the street.
- The number of engagements is often inflated by counting single events as multiple engagements, such as the visit to Colchester in March this year, where he visited the castle and library within the space of ninety minutes.
- More than 60 engagements are the King 'receiving' people. Such engagements typically last 20 minutes.
- Most of those 60 meetings are with military officers, diplomats, bishops and senior politicians.
- The Court Circular list for Charles is heavily padded with entries that do not involve the King, many which do not involve any royal. Other entries are private meetings, such as meetings with Duchy officials.
- With some notable exceptions, most engagements are within a short drive or helicopter flight from whichever home he is residing in at the time.
Graham Smith, speaking for Republic today, said:
"It's been reported that Charles worked on 161 days over the past year, yet the work he does amounts to very little. Of course, what he does do is rarely work as most people would understand it."
"It's rare Charles will do a five-day week, quite often weeks go by where he has one or two engagements on just one or two days. There are long stretches of down-time."
"For the most part he simply goes through the motions of carrying out regimented, formal meetings, attending church services or pursuing his own interests."
"Charles, like all the royals, does very little. They'll carry out the minimum required to look useful and important, they'll arrive for brief visits to small crowds of fans. But for most days of most weeks of the year theirs is a life of leisure."
"Since the Queen's death we have spent more than £345m* on the monarchy, plus an additional £250m on the coronation, lost an estimated £2bn from the economy as a result of extra bank holidays, and lost an estimated £220m in unpaid inheritance tax."
"That's a huge bill to pay for a part-time King who doesn't work but attends, who has meetings but no real responsibilities. A full-time elected head of state, as they have in Ireland, would cost as little as £5m a year."
*Estimated annual cost of the monarchy when all costs and lost revenues are included. See the report.
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