Buckingham Palace has published its figures on its levels of ethnic minority staff for the first time as it admitted it “must do more” and is “not where it would like to be” in terms of diversity.
The investigation into alleged bullying by the Duchess of Sussex is being paid for privately by the royal family, it has emerged.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused the royal family of racism in their Oprah Winfrey interview last year.
Following the bombshell allegations, the royal household has revealed in its annual financial accounts for 2020-2021 that its proportion of ethnic minority employees stands at just 8.5%, with a target of 10% for 2022.
In the UK, around 13% of the UK population is from a minority ethnic background, according to the latest 2011 Census data.
The Queen’s household also brought in a change to its Diversity Strategy in early 2020 – which predates the Oprah interview – to one that actively emphasises the importance of inclusion.
A senior palace source said the household had published the figures so there could be “no place to hide” and so they would be held accountable if no progress is made in the future.
“We are not where we would like to be despite our efforts,” the source said.
“It is not that we have not been progressing diversity and inclusion initiatives during this period, it is that simply the results have not been what we would like.
“We have continuous engagement with external advisers, organisations that are at the grassroots level who sit on our steering committee, people who are able to give us a different voice, a different perspective.
“And we recognise that we must do more.
“One of the key points about the publishing of our statistics, which is actually on a voluntary basis, is that there’s no place to hide.
“We fully expect you to come back and hold us accountable for the progress that we made. And if we don’t make the progress, we’ll have to explain why.”
The source described as a “significant step” the disclosing of the figures, which were previously monitored internally.
But Raj Tulsiani, co founder of Race Equality Matters, criticised the palace.
“In terms of saying ‘These are our numbers and we’d like to do better’, I don’t think they deserve a pat on the back for that,” he said.
“Amplifying aspirations for future inclusion, it’s nothing. It’s just words. You know if they were serious they’d say ‘Here’s our action plan’.”
Mr Tulsiani added that there was no breakdown of the 8.5% figure in terms of seniority of staff, and different grades.
“The concern when people provide an overarching percentage is that you can generally make the assumption that there’s a vastly higher percentage of people in lower paid jobs than there are in positions of power and influence which is part of the problem around recruitment, retention and reputation,” he said.
Mr Tulsiani, chief executive of Green Park diversity headhunters, leadership recruitment and consultancy service, added: “If they want to grow trust they have to tell people why. So to say ‘Oh we want 10%’, I’d like to know why. Why not 15% or 3%?
“Where does this target come from and what’s the purpose of it, and how do we translate that target into real numbers?”
Race Equality Matters was formed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement to turn declarations of commitment and support from organisations and individuals into meaningful change in the workforce and in society.
Royal sources guided previously that the palace was considering appointing a diversity tsar to help assess and improve representation across the royal household in the wake of the Sussexes’ allegations.
But the palace source said on Wednesday there were now no specific plans for such an appointment, although it was not ruled out.
Meghan, the first mixed race person to marry a senior royal for centuries, said an unnamed royal – not the Queen nor the Duke of Edinburgh – raised concerns with Harry about how dark their son Archie’s skin tone might be before he was born.
The Queen issued a statement saying that the issues raised would be dealt with privately as a family, but that “some recollections may vary”.
The palace source said on Wednesday that the Queen and the royal family had embraced the diversity of the UK.
“Her Majesty and other members of the royal family have actively promoted and embraced the diversity of our nation and that of the Commonwealth, and we take our lead from that,” they said.
Following the Oprah interview, the Duke of Cambridge defended the monarchy against Harry and Meghan’s claims, saying soon after they were made that “we’re very much not a racist family”.
The Prince of Wales’s household said its proportion of ethnic minority staff was also 8%.
A Clarence House senior spokesperson said: “It isn’t good enough and we are determined to do better.”
The spokesperson said that 60% of the Clarence House senior management team was female.
Kensington Palace declined to release its staff diversity figures.
Earlier this month, one of the Queen’s most senior aides revealed in the late 1960s it was not the “practice” to employ “coloured immigrants or foreigners” to clerical posts in the royal household.
Lord Tryon, the keeper of the privy purse at the time, spoke about minorities in the royal workforce in documents unearthed by the Guardian newspaper.
The paper also outlined how in the late 1960s civil servants and senior figures from Government negotiated with royal aides an exemption for the Queen and the household from legislation designed to prevent race discrimination.
Graham Smith, chief executive officer of Republic which campaigns for an elected head of state, said: “While it’s welcomed that the palace has published data on its staff diversity, it is still the case that palace staff are not protected from race discrimination, thanks to lobbying from the Queen over the past 40 years.
“There is no justification why anyone should be given an exemption from workplace discrimination laws, particularly our head of state.”
The shift in Diversity Strategy brought in by the Palace in early 2020 includes encouraging employees to make gender equality and inclusion pledges as part of International Women’s Day, employee articles on its intranet on Pride, Ramadan and Black History Month, and a planned “listening exercise” to examine employee experience.
The investigation into alleged bullying by the Duchess of Sussex is being paid for privately by the royal family, it has emerged.
Buckingham Palace declined to confirm whether it was the Queen who was footing the bill, but said no taxpayers’ money was being spent on the probe.
It is likely a senior member of the royal family has taken on the costs, but it is unclear when or even if the privately funded inquiry will be published.
Clarence House declined to comment as to whether the Prince of Wales was paying for the investigation.
As the palace released its Sovereign Grant financial accounts, details of the ongoing investigation were expected to be included in the annual report, but were not.
The palace said earlier this year that any changes in policies or procedures borne out review would appear in the accounts.
But a senior palace source said: “There is no Sovereign Grant money spent on this review. It is being met privately and not out of public money.”
The source declined to confirm if the investigation would be published, saying: “I have nothing further to add whilst this review is in progress.
“I have not seen the results of the review by independent lawyers, and I can’t comment further at this stage.”
The royal household tasked an external legal team to assist its human resources team into looking at allegations made against former Suits star Meghan.
The Times reported in March that the duchess allegedly drove out two personal assistants and “humiliated” staff on several occasions, which she denies.
The palace declined to give further details as to why the decision was made to privately pay for the HR inquiry.
It is believed to be the first time the actions of a member of the royal family have been investigation by the royal household’s HR department.
The Sussexes were not expected to be asked to contribute to the review, but it was previously reported the duchess had written to the palace asking for any documents, emails or texts relating to the allegations against her.
Lawyers for the duchess have denied the bullying allegations.
The Prince of Wales carried on supporting the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with a “substantial sum” in the months following Megxit, despite Harry claiming his family “literally cut me off financially”.
Heir to the throne Charles continued to fund the Sussexes until the summer of 2020, but the duke told Oprah Winfrey he stopped getting financial support from his family in the first quarter of that year.
Funding for both Charles’s sons – the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge – and their families contributed to a £4.5 million bill for the prince, his Clarence House financial accounts showed.
Harry and Meghan were still listed as receiving money from Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall income, despite quitting the monarchy at the end of March last year.
The funding bill – plus other expenditure including Charles’s capital expenditure and transfer to reserves – dropped by around £1.2 million in the financial year after the Sussexes stopped being senior royals.
A senior Clarence House spokesperson said: “As we’ll all remember in January 2020 when the duke and duchess announced that they were going to move away from the working royal family, the duke said that they would work towards becoming financially independent.
“The Prince of Wales allocated a substantial sum to support them with this transition.
“That funding ceased in the summer of last year. The couple are now financially independent.”
Quizzed on the discrepancy in the duke’s remarks, the Clarence House spokesperson said: “I wouldn’t acknowledge that they are dramatically different. All I can tell you are the facts.”
A spokesperson for the Sussexes insisted there was no difference in timeline, and that Harry was actually referring to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the UK, which runs from April to July.
“You are conflating two different timelines and it’s inaccurate to suggest that there’s a contradiction,” Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson said.
“The duke’s comments during the Oprah interview were in reference to the first quarter of the fiscal reporting period in the UK, which starts annually in April.
“This is the same date that the ‘transitional year’ of the Sandringham agreement began and is aligned with the timeline that Clarence House referenced.”
In his Oprah interview, Harry said his family cut him off financially “in the first quarter of 2020”.
The Clarence House spokesperson described the couple’s departure from the working royal family as “a matter of enormous sadness to the family”, adding: “But the prince wanted to help make this work, (and) allocated a substantial sum to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to help them with that transition.”
They added: “I betray no confidence when I say they’ve been very successful in becoming financially independent.”
Harry and Meghan signed multimillion-pound deals with Netflix and Spotify, with the duke telling Winfrey he secured these to pay for his security.
He said he had what Diana left him – £7 million at the time – and “without that we would not have been able to do this”.
Pre-Megxit, the duke and duchess’s joint wealth was estimated to be £18 million, but will have been boosted substantially by their high-profile deals.
Clarence House’s annual review revealed that the prince’s bill for the Cambridges’ and the Sussexes’ activities, plus other expenditure including Charles’s capital expenditure and transfer to reserves in 2020/2021, was £4.452 million, a fall of around 21% or £1.155 million from £5.607 million in 2019-2020.
The report provided no detailed breakdown of the figures.
Charles’s annual income from the Duchy of Cornwall profits fell to £20.4 million – a drop of £1.8 million or 8%.
His Sovereign Grant funding dropped from £1.8 million in 2020 to just £0.4 million this year.
Related: ‘Total neglect’: Harry slams royal family and admits drug-taking in bombshell interview
