Britain will spend a total of 162 million pounds sterling (about $200 million) on Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, the British Treasury announced on Thursday.
The monarch died in Scotland on 8 September 2022, followed by 10 days of national mourning followed by a state funeral on the 19th of that month. It was the first state funeral in Britain since former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1965.
“The government’s priority was to ensure these events ran smoothly and with the appropriate level of dignity, protecting the public at all times,” Chief Secretary to the Treasury John Glenn said in a statement.
According to figures provided by the UK Treasury, the Home Office paid the largest amount, totaling $91 million. Followed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which included $71 million.
The $200 million spent by the British state on the Emperor’s funeral is a sharp contrast to what was spent on previous royal funerals. This is the funeral of Elizabeth’s mother, known as the Queen Mother in 2002, whose figure reached $ 6.7 million.
The millionaire funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, which included the largest ever police operation in the United Kingdom, was attended by figures of world politics. These include US President Joe Biden, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron as well as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Queen was buried in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The remains of Elizabeth II lie next to the remains of her husband, Prince Felipe, who died in April 2021.
