London:
Buckingham Palace, which has come beneath fire from Queen Elizabeth’s grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan for the way it bargains with race, has not performed adequate to boost diversity amongst employees, a senior royal supply has mentioned.
In its annual report on the Sovereign Grant, which specifics the queen’s taxpayer-funded spending, the palace mentioned on Wednesday that only 8.5% of its employees have been from ethnic minorities, the 1st time it has provided such a breakdown.
“We recognise we are not where we would like to be,” mentioned the supply, speaking on situation of anonymity.
“Her Majesty and members of the royal family have promoted and embrace the diversity of our nation and that of the Commonwealth, and we therefore recognise that our own workforce needs to reflect the communities that we serve. We haven’t made the progress that we would like, and we can do better.”
The palace says it aims to have 10% of employees from ethnic minorities by the finish of 2022.
In an explosive US interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, accused an unnamed member of the royal family of a racist comment.
Harry’s elder brother William publicly denied that the family have been racist, but the queen mentioned the problem was regarding, and would be addressed.
In the run-up to the interview, the palace also mentioned it would evaluation employees allegations of bullying by Meghan, and she mentioned she was saddened by the “attack on her character”.
Michael Stevens, the queen’s treasurer, told reporters at a briefing on the grant that the evaluation was nevertheless in progress.
He also revealed that the queen’s finances had taken a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The core grant of 51.5 million pounds ($72 million) is boosted by added revenue, mostly from tickets to pay a visit to royal palaces. But this further income fell by 53%, to 9.4 million pounds, since of the pandemic.
However, the drop was offset by savings, and by 2.4 million pounds from Harry and Meghan to cover the renovation of their British home, Frogmore Cottage, which had been paid for by the Sovereign Grant just before they gave up their royal duties to move to the United States, and to meet rental fees.
“The payment covers all their current obligations,” Stevens mentioned.
The pandemic did give the royals a opportunity to speed up a 10-year overhaul of Buckingham Palace, which is at present on schedule and inside its 369-million-pound price range, Stevens mentioned.
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