More than 14 months into his reign and after three state visits and a holiday overseas, the King is yet to require any of his family members to substitute for him in their roles as counsellors of state despite a good deal of fuss over it.
“As far as I know, he hasn’t needed a counsellor of state so far,” a senior royal aide said.
In Kenya earlier this month while on a state visit the King was working daily on Government papers sent out to him in red boxes.
On November 2, for example, he gave royal assent, signing into law an Act to establish a Patient Safety Commissioner for Scotland. In quaint legal language the Scottish Parliament legislation records: “WITNESS Ourself at Kenya on the second day of November in the second year of Our Reign.”
It adds: “By The King Himself Signed with His Own Hand.”
He saved Andrew and Harry’s blushes by keeping them on the list, although insiders have insisted that in practice they, nor Princess Beatrice, who like them does not undertake official duties on behalf of the monarch, will never be asked to act as counsellors of state. There is also a question, according to some constitutional experts, of whether Harry is entitled to remain a counsellor of state as he no longer has a home in the UK.
The list of counsellors of state includes Queen Camilla, and the first four adults in the line of succession – Prince William, Harry, Andrew, and Princess Beatrice – now bolstered by Edward and Anne.
But privately aides did say that it was unlikely that there would ever be a problem. It is thought to have been decades since Andrew was last asked to stand in for his late mother.
In the final year of her life, the Queen had to ask Charles and William to substitute for her as counsellors of state to open Parliament but, even while she was struggling with her health in her later years, it was a rare occasion.
The King has been to Germany, France, and Kenya on state visits and also enjoyed a holiday in Romania.
His mother used to have red boxes flown out to her also, although in the early years of her reign there was more need for a stand-in back in Britain when communications were slower and she was travelling around the world on the royal yacht Britannia.
In December last year the King added Prince Edward and Princess Anne to the list of counsellors of state to create a bigger pool of stand-ins and avoid the possibility of his disgraced brother Prince Andrew or his exiled son Prince Harry creating a constitutional crisis by being asked to perform the role.
He saved Andrew and Harry’s blushes by keeping them on the list, although insiders have insisted that in practice they, nor Princess Beatrice, who like them does not undertake official duties on behalf of the monarch, will never be asked to act as counsellors of state. There is also a question, according to some constitutional experts, of whether Harry is entitled to remain a counsellor of state as he no longer has a home in the UK.
The list of counsellors of state includes Queen Camilla, and the first four adults in the line of succession – Prince William, Harry, Andrew, and Princess Beatrice – now bolstered by Edward and Anne.
But privately aides did say that it was unlikely that there would ever be a problem. It is thought to have been decades since Andrew was last asked to stand in for his late mother.
In the final year of her life, the Queen had to ask Charles and William to substitute for her as counsellors of state to open Parliament but, even while she was struggling with her health in her later years, it was a rare occasion.
The King has been to Germany, France, and Kenya on state visits and also enjoyed a holiday in Romania.
His mother used to have red boxes flown out to her also, although in the early years of her reign there was more need for a stand-in back in Britain when communications were slower and she was travelling around the world on the royal yacht Britannia.
