I have received a number of emails from constituents regarding the Royal exemption from FOI requests.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 came into force in 2005 allowing anyone to make a request to see information held by UK public authorities. Both Acts were passed by Labour administrations, in the UK Parliament and Scottish Parliament respectively.

The Royal Household is itself not a public authority within the meaning of the FOI Acts, and is therefore exempt from their provisions. Despite its exemption from the FOI Acts, the Royal Household's policy is to provide information as freely as possible in other areas, and to account openly for its use of public money. For example, full details of public funding of the Head of State have been provided since 2001.

Additionally, while papers in the Royal Archives are not public records as defined by the Public Records Act 1958, papers that originate in the Royal Household but are held by bodies subject to the Public Records Act are public records.

It is through a fundamental constitutional principle that communications between the Monarch and their Ministers and other public bodies should remain confidential, and that the political neutrality of the Monarch, the Royal Family, and the Royal Household acting on their behalf, should be maintained. The Sovereign, by convention, is informed by and acts upon the advice of the Prime Minister of the day. But it remains essential that the Sovereign is not drawn into party politics, and it is the responsibility of those involved in the political process to ensure that remains the case.