The Office of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall publishes its 2014 Annual Review

Supporting Her Majesty The Queen at home and abroad, and celebrating significant national and international anniversaries were key themes for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall last year. 

In April 2013, The Prince and The Duchess represented The Queen at the investiture of Crown Prince Willem-Alexander as King of the Netherlands. A few weeks later, The Prince and The Duchess attended The State Opening of Parliament in Westminster. In June, they attended celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of The Queen's Coronation. In July they welcomed the birth of Prince George, attending his christening at St James's Palace in October. 

In November, as The Prince celebrated his 65th birthday, he represented Her Majesty The Queen at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, accompanied by The Duchess. 

In what was another busy year, The Prince also launched two major new initiatives: Combating the Illegal Wildlife Trade, alongside his sons The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry; and Step Up To Serve the campaign for youth social action together with the Prime Minister David Cameron, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the Leader of the Opposition 

Ed Miliband. 

Other highlights included The Prince and The Duchess celebrating the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, the world's longest running science fiction television programme, by visiting the Cardiff studios where it is currently recorded. Other anniversaries marked by Their Royal Highnesses this year included Welsh poet Dylan Thomas's centenary celebrations, the 80th anniversary of the animal welfare charity The Brooke, the 60th anniversary of The Samaritans and the 20th anniversary of The National Literacy Trust. 

It was the 20th anniversary of Poundbury, the urban extension to Dorchester in Dorset, developed on Duchy of Cornwall land, and the 

21st birthday of Duchy Originals the organic food brand established by 

The Prince of Wales and now licensed to the UK supermarket Waitrose. Since it began, Duchy Originals has raised around £14m for charitable causes.

It has been another busy year for The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, in terms of public engagements throughout the United Kingdom and those overseas on behalf of the Government, the latest Annual Review from Clarence House reveals today.

The 2014 Review shows that between them The Prince and The Duchess undertook 665 joint and solo official engagements in the UK and abroad last year, hosted almost 9,500 people at events at royal residences and travelled nearly 46,000 miles at home and abroad in the course of their work on behalf of the country.

As in previous years, a number of other key themes are evident, including: the regeneration of communities, youth opportunity, support for the UK’s Armed Forces and their families at home and abroad, and working with the private, public and NGO sectors on sustainability. 

The Duchess of Cornwall continued to highlight achievements in the fields of health, literacy, animal welfare and food, as well as supporting the help given to those in need and who have been the victims of sexual assault. Her Royal Highness also undertook her first solo official overseas visit to Paris.

As it does each year, the Review provides details of The Prince’s charitable activities, which continue to thrive in challenging economic conditions. In 2013-14, His Royal Highness helped to raise, directly or indirectly, £131 million to support the work of his 16 core charities. This figure is similar to previous years and an impressive achievement, given the challenges faced by the charitable sector.

The latest Review continues to provide detailed information about the Household’s impact on the environment, with overall carbon emissions from energy use falling by 21 per cent, due to three-quarters of the Household's energy use now coming from renewable sources. Carbon emissions from travel over which the Household has far less control increased, however, leaving an overall net increase of carbon emissions by 2 per cent.



The Review also explains that the vast majority of official costs relating to The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry are paid for by His Royal Highness, from Duchy of Cornwall income, supported by The Queen’s Sovereign Grant funding to provide assistance with official travel and property maintenance. 

The Prince’s private income from the Duchy of Cornwall in 2013-14 rose by 2.4 per cent to £19.5 million. His Royal Highness chooses to spend well over half of his after-tax income in support of his official and charitable work, and that spending increased slightly to £9.9million. His tax bill, which is paid at the highest rate of income tax, after the deduction of business expenditure, was £4.2 million.

Spending on official travel, paid for through the Sovereign Grant, returned to £1.3 million (similar to two years ago). Last year's reduced figure of £644,000 was mainly due to travel costs to Realm countries being covered by the hosts.

As well as a printed version, once again the Annual Review is available as a pdf download from Their Royal Highnesses’ website, www.princeofwales.gov.uk.  The digital Review includes the Sustainability Account, which details greenhouse gas emissions, energy usage and other impacts.

Published for the seventh consecutive year, the Sustainability Account follows the adoption of the Connected Reporting Framework, developed by The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project an initiative he set up in 2005 to help companies and public sector organizations embed sustainable practices in their operations and report their sustainability performance.