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Royal Family news reveals that BEIS (Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) has until the end of October to produce documents requested by the information commissioner or, otherwise, risk a legal battle. Read on and we’ll give you the low down.
Royal Family News -Time For BEIS To Put Up Or Shut Up
Royal Family news reveals that, per The Guardian, BEIS ministers could face contempt charges unless they respond to a document request. The documents in question could reveal how the late Queen Elizabeth II concealed a portion of her private wealth from the public.
The information commissioner, UK’s transparency watchdog has threatened to take legal action against BEIS, which has resisted the request for two years now. They reportedly have until the end of October in order to respond to the FIF request or face legal action (via UK Daily).
Queen Elizabeth’s Secret Stash
The withheld document may detail how Her Majesty used a secret financial facility to hide her shares in commercial companies she owned, as well as the value of those shares. The full scope of her fortune, including her investments, has reportedly never been disclosed to the public. It has been estimated that the sum total could reach hundreds of millions of pounds.
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That year, The Guardian reported that the Queen had successfully lobbied the UK government to alter legislation in order to prevent the disclosure of her personal holdings to the public.
Royal watchers may recall that in the 1970s, Elizabeth lobbied the government to create a state-backed shell company, Bank of England Nominees. The company appears to have kept the Queen’s private shareholdings and investments secret for more than thirty years.
Queen Elizabeth II’s History of Concealment
Documents reportedly obtained by The Guardian reveal that other members of the Royal Family also used the proverbial stash house to conceal their own investments in companies. The identities of the other Royal Family members as well as the scale of their holdings are yet to be revealed.
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In 1973 the Queen reportedly sent her private attorney to lobby her government to change a proposed law that would show to the public who owned shares of what, He argued that disclosure of these holdings would be “embarrassing” to the Royal Family.
As a result, a special exemption was attached to the law, according to an internal Whitehall document from 2011, “to avoid a situation where for example ownership of specific shares by members of the royal family could become widely known.”
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