Civil List

Civil List, in the United Kingdom, the list of sums appropriated annually by Parliament to pay the expenses of the sovereign and his or her household. The sums are charged to the government’s Consolidated Fund and audited by the treasury.

The custom of the Civil List dates to 1689, when Parliament, on the accession of William and Mary, voted £600,000 specifically for civil expenses. Through the first Civil List Act in 1697, revenues estimated to yield about £700,000 were assigned to the monarch to cover civil and royal expenses. Previously these expenses had been paid entirely from the monarch’s hereditary revenues and from certain taxes voted to the sovereign for life by Parliament.

During the reign of George I, the Civil List became a fixed sum, with Parliament paying any debts that were incurred. For George II there were assigned revenues in addition to fixed grants and a guaranteed total of £800,000. George III made a political tool of his Civil List (at a fixed sum of £800,000), rewarding his supporters in Parliament with secret pensions and bribes. Parliament, in turn, sometimes used a sovereign’s dependence on the Civil List as a means of persuading him to give up other income or powers. The Civil List Act of 1762, providing supervision of the account, prevented the amending of pensions. Reform in the 1780s prohibited secret pensions and provided for some parliamentary oversight.

On his accession in 1820 George IV received an annual Civil List of £845,727. In 1830 the amount was reduced to £510,000 for William IV, but for the first time the account was intended to cover only royal expenditures. Further changes came during Queen Victoria’s reign (1837–1901) when she was allowed to grant pensions, on the advice of her ministers, to persons who had achieved distinction in the arts, literature, or science or had given personal services to the crown—a custom that continued with her successors.

Queen Elizabeth II received a Civil List of £475,000 when she came to the throne in 1952, but inflation affected the list over the years, and by the early 21st century the Civil List amounted to some £10 million annually. The bulk of the funds pays the salaries of the royal staff. The Civil List also includes direct payments to lesser royals who perform official functions. In the 1990s Elizabeth II agreed to further reforms, reducing the list by paying many expenses from her own income.