Prince Harry's Lawyers Appear in Court Over His Security Arrangements
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In January this year, Prince Harry’s lawyers issued a statement confirming he had filed a legal claim in September 2021 for a judicial review of a Home Office decision about his future security arrangements. And today, lawyers for the Prince and the Home Office were in the UK’s High Court for a hearing ahead of the judge’s decision over whether to the grant the judicial review.
The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC) decided in February 2020 that when Prince Harry stepped back as a working royal the following month he would lose his full-time police protection. Instead, they determined that his security arrangements when he was in the UK would be decided on a case by case basis, something their lawyers said today in court papers “recognised that [the Prince] occupies a particular and unusual position” and “is obviously rational.” However, Shaheed Fatima QC, representing the Duke of Sussex, argued in court today that there was “no clarity or finality” over the new arrangements. The Prince’s legal team are also claiming that Harry’s position as sixth in the line of succession means that he falls within the description “immediate line of succession” which they say should entitle him to state security under RAVEC’s own policy.
Also raised in court today was the question of who was involved in the decision over the Prince’s future security. The court heard that members of the royal household including the Queen’s Private Secretary Sir Edward Young and the Master of Prince Charles’ Household were members of RAVEC when the decision was made, something Harry’s lawyers are saying he was deprived of the opportunity to comment on the appropriateness of. “He did not know at that stage that the royal household was involved at all. He was told that it was an independent decision,” Shaheed Fatima QC told the court. She added that there were “significant tensions” between her client and certain people on the committee. “Prior to the decision, [the Prince] was told by TRH (the royal household) that RAVEC was ‘independent’; he was not informed about the composition of RAVEC and nor was he informed that TRH was involved in the making of the Decision,” court papers say.
Also revealed in court documents was Harry’s intention to launch a second claim for another judicial review, this time in relation to his offer to pay for his own security. “[The Prince’s] offer was made at a meeting on 13 January 2020 at which members of TRH were present and is also referred to in an email to Sir Edward Young of 16 April 2020,” legal documents state. “There has been no explanation of why the offer was not conveyed...[The Prince] has engaged in pre-action correspondence for a proposed second judicial review claim in relation the these matters, and intends to issue that claim shortly.”
Lawyers for the Home Office are saying that Harry’s claim is “out of time” as it was not raised until September 2021 about the February 2020 decision. They also describe their original decision as “plainly rational.” And they state in legal papers that if Harry’s applications are refused they would seek all costs incurred. “This is an exceptional case in which a very significant burden has been imposed by the Claimant on the public purse, through pursuit of an unarguable claim and requiring detailed and lengthy engagement in advance of a permission decision,” the submission reads. “The public purse should not have to bear the cost of the conduct of this litigation and a claim which ought not to have been brought at all.”
Following the public part of the hearing today, Mr Justice Swift said that he expected to make a decision by the end of the month via a written submission on whether the case could proceed.
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