Prince Harry Preparing New Lawsuit Over Offer to Fund Police Security

Prince Harry's legal team has indicated that he will file a new lawsuit relating to his offer to pay for his police protection.

The Duke of Sussex is already suing the British government for stripping him of his Metropolitan Police bodyguards. Without them, Harry argues that he, Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor cannot safely return to Britain.

However, during the case, it emerged Harry is getting ready to file a second "judicial review" relating to a decision that private citizens should not be able to pay to receive Metropolitan Police protection.

The Home Office's Royalty and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC), who decided Harry should not get police bodyguards, were asked to consider the issue in December after he filed his first case.

A July 7 court filing by Harry's team read: "On 21 December 2021 [The Home Office] asked RAVEC to determine in principle whether an individual whose position had been determined by RAVEC not to justify Protective Security should be permitted to receive Protective Security but to reimburse the public purse for the cost of that security.

"On 24 January 2022, RAVEC took the decision that State security should not be available on a privately financed basis."

It is this decision that will be the subject of the second lawsuit.

The filing later added: "[Prince Harry] has engaged in pre-action correspondence for a proposed second judicial review claim in relation to these matters, and intends to issue that claim shortly."

Old tensions between Harry and the Royal Household have flared during the course of the first lawsuit, a hearing at London's High Court, on July 7, 2022, revealed.

The duke learned through the legal action that Queen Elizabeth II's private secretary Sir Edward Young did not tell RAVEC he had offered to pay for his police protection.

Harry's lawyers also said he should have been told Young and other senior Royal Household staff were involved in the committee due to "tensions" involving certain people.

A court filing read: "[Prince Harry's] offer was made at a meeting on 13 January 2020 at which members of TRH [The Royal Household] were present and is also referred to in an email to Sir Edward Young of 16 April 2020.

"There has been no explanation of why the offer was not conveyed."

The January 13, 2020, meeting mentioned in the filing was conducted at Sandringham and involved not only palace staff but also the queen, Prince Charles and Prince William.

Plans for a second lawsuit emerged during a hearing at London's High Court on Thursday to determine whether his existing case can progress or should be dismissed.

If Harry wins, the case will move to a full hearing further down the line in which the issues he has raised will be thrashed out in detail. If he loses, he may choose to appeal.

Harry's legal team told the court the prince should have been notified that certain people within the Royal Household were represented on RAVEC, including Young, due to "significant tensions."

Their court filing read: "[Prince Harry] should have been given a clear and full explanation of the composition of RAVEC and those involved in its decision-making, i.e. that this included The Royal Household ("TRH").

"He should have been given the opportunity to make direct representations to RAVEC as a body to ensure that all his points were fully and properly communicated to RAVEC; he should have been informed about the RAVEC Policy/how it was applied and points being made by others involved in the process, including TRH; and he should have been given an opportunity to respond to those points/make any others he wished, such as whether it was appropriate for TRH/certain individuals to be involved in making the Decision."

However, Home Office lawyers were dismissive of the argument, saying tensions within the household were irrelevant to its decision.

Their court filing read: "[Prince Harry] now refers to objections he might have made to any role being played by officials of the Royal Household in RAVEC's decision-making (apparently because of personal tensions he felt with them), but there is no bias challenge and any such tensions are irrelevant to the undisputed fact of [Prince Harry's] change in status which led to the decision of RAVEC."

Judgment on whether the current case should proceed was reserved and will be handed down at later date, likely to fall before the end of July.

Correction 07/07/22, 12:01 p.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect that Prince Harry's second judicial review relates to the decision by RAVEC that police protection should not be offered on a privately-financed basis.