Queen Elizabeth's State Funeral: How Much Will It Cost?
18:03 GMT 18.09.2022 (Updated: 15:21 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AFP 2023 / ADRIAN DENNIS
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For the past week, there has been speculation in the media, and on social media, about the likely cost of the Queen’s funeral, which will be paid for by the state - or simply put, British taxpayers.
The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, is due to be held on Monday at 11.00 a.m local time at London’s Westminster Abbey and, as expected, no expenses will be spared for the funeral ceremony.
Queen Elizabeth's funeral has been years in the planning and her death put into action a detailed plan set in place in the 1960s called Operation London Bridge, which lists the exact procedures that kick in moments after her death and come to an end with her funeral ten days later.
FILE - The Koh-i-noor, or "mountain of light," diamond, set in the Maltese Cross at the front of the crown made for Britain's late Queen Mother Elizabeth, is seen on her coffin, along with her personal standard, a wreath and a note from her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, as it is drawn to London's Westminster Hall in this April 5, 2002. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to flock to London’s medieval Westminster Hall from Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022, to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, whose coffin will lie in state for four days until her funeral on Monday. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
© AP Photo / ALASTAIR GRANT
However, all the procedures and the expenses that go with them are kept secret and the public can only guess how much it all costs.
Despite the fact that there is no recent precedent for the cost of a state funeral as it has been 70 years since a British sovereign passed away (Elizabeth's father, George VI) and 57 years since the last state funeral for the former Prime Minister Winston Churchill, there are previous royal events that can give us an idea of how much funding goes into arranging them.
Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997 is estimated to have cost between $3.4–5.5 million. Two thousand people attended the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, with an estimated 2 to 2.5 billion people watching the event on television worldwide, making it one of the biggest televised events in history.
The Queen Mother’s funeral, 20 years ago, cost the British taxpayers around $5.7 million. She died at 101 and was laid to rest in the King George VI Memorial Chapel next to her husband, King George VI.
Last year, Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's husband, died at 99. He had a small funeral of just 30 people due to coronavirus restrictions. He was put to rest in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle without any foreign dignitaries present.
Queen Elizabeth watches as pallbearers carry the coffin of the Duke of Edinburgh during his funeral, at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, Windsor, England, Saturday April 17, 2021
© Dominic Lipinski
Other huge royal events that came with a large public price tag included the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Kate, in 2011. Although the wedding was not paid for by the state, police time alone cost almost $10 million, according to Full Fact.
Similarly, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in 2018 cost around $4.3 million in police staffing, as one of the biggest expense of royal events is policing the large crowds that such events gather.
"The public response to the Queen is already larger than either of these two prior recent events [royal weddings], requiring even more by way of security expenses," according to Quartz.
Considering that the UK has declared the day of the funeral a bank holiday, millions of pounds in economic losses for the day will be incurred.
For the bank holiday during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in June, the decline in economic output was estimated at £2.4 billion ($ 2.7 billion).
According to a report by Quartz, "The Queen’s lavish send-off strikes a bitter contrast to the UK’s high inflation and cost-of-living crisis, which has many Britons concerned about having to choose between food and heating as winter sets in."
Although no official number has been confirmed, considering the past royal events, Queen Elizabeth's funeral is expected to cost more than $10.1 million, according to multiple reports.
State funerals are publicly funded in the UK and this funeral is expected to receive some 750,000 people. Hence, London will be blanketed with security and police to make sure nothing goes wrong.
"This is the biggest policing operation that United Kingdom policing has ever undertaken," according to Simon Morgan, who spent years protecting the British royal family.
"When you look at the other events, they were big — the Prince and Prince of Wales' wedding in 2011 was the biggest — but in comparison to this, you can't compare it," he told the New York Post.
Extra seats are expected to be arranged at the Westminster Abbey to accommodate more than 8,000 people, even though the church typically holds 2,200 congregants.
A procession to transport the Queen’s coffin from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey for the funeral will begin after 10.30 a.m. local time. The funeral service, led by the dean of Westminster, is expected to last just over one hour. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is set to deliver the sermon at the ceremony.
Two minutes of silence will be observed inside Westminster Abbey and across Britain, followed by the national anthem and a lament played by the royal piper Pipe Major Paul Burns of The Royal Regiment of Scotland, in line with the Queen’s personal request.
Following that, Queen Elizabeth II will be put to rest at the King George VI Memorial Chapel at St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle, alongside her husband Prince Philip.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Sputnik.
