Prince Harry launches fresh bid for taxpayer funded security by writing to Home Secretary

Prince Harry has written to the Home Secretary in an apparent bid to be given taxpayer-funded state security despite losing a legal battle against having his automatic police protection removed.

In May, the Court of Appeal rejected Harry's argument that he and his family should receive the same level of security he received before he stood down as a working royal in January 2020. The case had marked the end of Harry's long-running battle with the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec), an agency overseen by the Home Office which decides the level of security allocated for members of the Royal Family and other public figures. Ravec had previously ruled that because the prince is an infrequent visitor to the UK, his security should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

However, the Times reports that the duke has now written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and lodged a formal request with Ravec to conduct a risk assessment process.

Sources told the Times that Harry had written to Mahmood, and had also previously been in correspondence with her predecessor, Yvette Cooper.

A source told the paper the duke had asked for Ravec to "abide by its own rules", citing that a risk management board (RMB) should be carried out for each member of the Royal Family and certain VIPs each year.

They said they could "confirm that the duke has written to the new Home Secretary asking for a risk management board to be conducted", adding that the 41-year-old royal realised he might "not be top of the incoming secretary's in-tray".

The last RMB for the duke was in 2019, when he was still a working royal, according to the Times. Prince Harry does still get police protection in the UK, but it is not automatic and he has to give plenty of notice of visits.

A government spokesperson told the Times: "The UK government's protective security system is rigorous and proportionate. It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals' security."

Prince Harry has been back to the UK in recent months, with a visit to the WellChild awards hosted at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London in September. The royal was escorted by his own private security for the event, as well as Metropolitan Police officers who carried out a security sweep of the site.

It's also reported British Transport Police were alerted when the duke travelled to Nottingham by train to visit a community recording studio connected to the BBC Children in Need initiative.