Eight months after the state funeral and mourning period, HM Treasury have today revealed the full cost of HRH Queen Elizabeth II funeral last September.
The large amount of money spent has been broken down into departmental spending with the top expenditure listed as follows:
- £74 million spent by the Home Office.
- £57 million spent by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
- £19 million spent by the Scottish Government.
- £3 million spent by the Ministry of Defence.
- £2.6 million spent by the Department for Transport.
- £2.2 million spent by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
- £2 million spent by the Welsh Government.
- £2 million spent by the Northern Ireland Government.
The costs incurred include the mourning period where around a quarter of a million people queued in order to see the Queen and pay their respects as she lay in state.
Considering the vast operation involved it is understandable how the Home Office incurred such huge costs - they were responsible for policing the events and the issue of national security as many high profile dignitaries from across the World descended upon London. The Metropolitan Police were tasked with the tackling the logistics of their largest ever policing operation.
How Does The Spending For The Queen's Funeral Compare To Other State/Ceremonial Funerals?
1965 - Sir Winston Churchill
The cost was revealed as £48,000 - in 1965 money, of which, the lying in state cost was £7,000 and the policing cost £2,000. The bulk of the spending as £15,000 by St Paul's Cathedral and £19,000 by the Ministry of Defence. £48,000 is of course in 1965 money and after inflation we can convert it to 2023 money... which is £1.2 million (CPI).
2002 - The Queen Mother
The lying in state cost was around £825,000.
The Met Police spent £4.3 million policing the event.
The Ministry of Defence spent £301,000 - but these costs were covered from their own annual budget.
The Home Office spent £1,817 on stationery such as mourning envelopes and letterheads.
£825,000 converted from 2002 money to 2023 money is £1.7 million.
1997 - Princess Diana
The cost was estimated to be somewhere between £3 million and £5 million according to The Times newspaper.
If we consider the cost as £4 million - this would be equivalent to £9.4 million today (2023).
2013 - Baroness Thatcher
Total costs were £1.21 million.
Policing costs for the funeral were near £950,000 - 90 percent of which was spent by the Met Police. The remaining 8 percent and 2 percent by the City of London Police and British Transport Police, respectively.
The actual costs of the funeral were £262,000, which was covered by the Government and Baroness Thatcher's estate. This was broken down into £32k spent by the Cabinet Office, £7k by the City of London, £78k by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, £8k by the Greater London Authority, £20k by the London Ambulance Service, £39k by the MoD, £2k by Parliament, £68k by St Paul's Cathedral, £1k by TfL and £6k by Westminster City Council.
£1.21 million converted to 2023 money (ten years of inflation) is £1.77 million.