Prince Harry loses legal fight to let him pay for UK police protection

Prince Harry’s years-long effort to extract a key concession to his family from the British government has been shot down.

Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Prince Harry has lost a legal challenge in the United Kingdom’s High Court, in another blow to his years-long effort to pay for police officers to protect him and his family while they’re in the country.

Harry, his wife Meghan and their children lost their police protection when they ceased to be “working” members of the royal family in 2020. The Duke of Sussex offered to pay privately to have it reinstated, stressing that his goal was “not to impose on the taxpayer”.

That offer was rejected by the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (known colloquially as Ravec), which oversees the security of public figures.

Harry challenged Ravec’s decision, pushing for a judicial review. His legal team argued that payment for “special police services” was allowed under the law, and complained that Ravec had not given Harry a chance to make submissions before making its decision.

Harry and Meghan. Picture: Matt Dunham/Getty Images

The British government opposed him, arguing that allowing people to pay for round-the-clock police security would create a two-tier system, giving the wealthy access to a service that was unavailable to normal members of the public.

It said the type of protection required for Harry was distinct from that used at one-off events such as sporting matches, marathons and celebrity weddings, for which police can be privately funded.

And while maintaining that Ravec was not required to give Harry a chance to make representations, it argued that such representations “would have been highly likely to have made no substantial difference” to its decision anyway.

The Metropolitan Police, whose officers were previously responsible for protecting Harry, said it would be wrong for “a policing body to place officers in harm’s way upon payment of a fee by a private individual”. It also argued that providing security for the Sussexes would divert resources from people in greater need.

The Sussexes wanted to pay for police protection. Picture: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

There was a one-day court hearing on the matter last week. On Tuesday morning, British time, a High Court judge decided not to move ahead with a judicial review.

“In my judgment, the short answer to this point is that Ravec did not say that it would be contrary to the public interest to allow wealthy individuals to pay for any police services,” Justice Martin Chamberlain wrote in his ruling.

“It can be taken to have understood that section 25(1) of the Police Act 1996, to which it referred, expressly envisages payment for some such services.

“Its reasoning was narrowly confined to the protective security services that fall within its remit. Those services are different in kind from the police services provided at, for example, sporting or entertainment events, because they involve the deployment of highly trained specialist officers, of whom there are a limited number, and who are required to put themselves in harm’s way to protect their principals.

“Ravec’s reasoning was that there are policy reasons why those services should not be made available for payment, even though others are. I can detect nothing that is arguably irrational in that reasoning.”

Harry and Meghan lost their taxpayer-funded police protection when they stopped being working royals in 2020. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The High Court’s decision comes the week after Harry and Meghan were involved in, as they characterised it, a “near catastrophic” car chase with paparazzi in New York.

The incident happened after the couple attended an awards ceremony with the Duchess of Sussex’s mother, Doria Ragland.

“Last night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Ms Ragland were involved in a near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi,” a spokesperson for Harry and Meghan said in a statement afterwards.

“This relentless pursuit, lasting over two hours, resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.”

Sources close to the couple said they had been pursued by half a dozen blacked out vehicles with “unidentified people driving recklessly and endangering the convoy and everyone around them”.

“The chase could have been fatal,” one such source said.

A spokesperson for the New York Police Department conceded “there were numerous photographers” who “made their transport challenging”.

It’s been reported the couple were staying at a house on New York’s Upper East Side, likely no more than a 15-minute drive from where they set off. But they did not want to return directly to the property over concerns the location would be revealed.

Photo agency Backgrid disputed the Sussexes’ account of the incident.

“According to the photographers present, there were no near-collisions or near-crashes during this incident,” Backgrid USA said.

“The photographers have reported feeling that the couple was not in immediate danger at any point.”

Originally published as Prince Harry loses legal fight to let him pay for UK police protection