£52,000 fare is one way to run up right royal bill

The cost of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s return journey from California last summer came to £51,410, as the couple and their adviser Sir David Manning were upgraded from business to first class seats on the scheduled British Airways flight.

It was not the most expensive trip of the year, however – a visit by the Prince of Wales to Africa and the Middle East cost nearly £500,000, according to Buckingham Palace’s official accounts.

Overall the Queen’s official expenditure increased by £200,000 from £32.1m in 2010/11 to £32.3m in 2011/12.

But while the cost of travel and the upkeep of royal residences went up, Civil List funding, much of it used to pay the wages of Royal Household staff, fell by £100,000 from £13.7m to £13.6m following a two-year pay freeze.

The tax costs of paying for official air and rail travel at home and abroad for members of the Royal Family increased by £100,000 from £6m in 2010/11 to £6.1m in 2011/12.

The year also saw an increase in spending on property services – money used for the upkeep of royal residences and other buildings – from £11.9m to £12.2m.

However, the cost of running the Buckingham Palace press office, maintaining the official website and providing information to the public fell from £500,000 to £400,000.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said: “When the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his plans for the public expenditure to reduce by 25 per cent in real terms over a four-year period, the Queen was very keen that the Royal Household should play its part in reducing its expenditure accordingly.

“We are pleased to report that we have achieved this reduction a year ahead of the public expenditure target and managed to transfer £3.3m to the Sovereign Grant reserve.

“The decrease in expenditure is due mainly to the continuation of a pay freeze, increased income generation, and the deferral of property maintenance expenditure.”

Royal finances are in a transitional phase as the old system is phased out and a new Sovereign Grant funding model is introduced.

This system will replace money from the Civil List, Government funds which cover the official expenses of the Queen and her household.

Under the new grant, the Queen will receive 15 per cent of the profits from the £6.7bn Crown Estate.

About 70 per cent of Civil List expenditure goes on the salaries of the Queen’s staff, from footmen to chefs in the royal kitchen.

Wages have been frozen for the past two years and the accounts showed the money spent on salaries fell from £10.2m to £10m in 2011/12.

The Civil List is also used to pay for catering and hospitality which the 2011/12 accounts showed stood at £1.2m, executive and administrative £1.4m, housekeeping and furnishings £500,000, ceremonial functions £400,000 and £100,000 was used for other unnamed costs.

The Queen and the Royal Family cost taxpayers 52p per person last year, the Buckingham Palace accounts showed, but this figure does not include the cost of providing security and police protection for members of the monarchy.

The most expensive trip was the Prince of Wales’s official visit to Kuwait and Qatar last autumn before he went on to South Africa and Tanzania when he was joined by the Duchess of Cornwall. The cost for these chartered flights was £460,387.

The bill for the Duke of York’s overseas visits as UK Special Representative for International Trade and Investment came to a little more than £350,000.

Prince Andrew stepped down from this post last July following the intense scrutiny he faced over his relationships with a series of controversial figures, including a convicted paedophile.

However, he had a number of commitments he had to fulfil so continued travelling the globe as trade envoy.