Queen Elizabeth funeral cost: queue to see Queen lying in state cost Parliament at least £1.3m

The Houses of Parliament spent at least £1.3 million setting up the queue to see the Queen lying in state last year, it has revealed – and likely millions more. 

It comes after the UK Treasury revealed Queen Elizabeth’s death, funeral and the national mourning period in September last year cost government an estimated £162 million – a figure that does not include expenses worth £8.2 million now reported by the House of Commons and House of Lords.

Hundreds of thousands of people queued to catch a glimpse of the Queen’s coffin and pay their respects as she lay in state at the Palace of Westminster for three days ahead of her funeral. At times, the queue – which became a closely-watched phenomenon around the world, complete with an online queue length tracker and live stream of the coffin – stretched 10 miles and reached an estimated 24-hour wait time. 

Footballer David Beckham was hailed for standing in line for 13-hours, while ITV presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby were condemned after being accused of using their media credentials to queue jump – a backlash that was purportedly the catalyst for the This Morning hosts’ friendship and working relationship crumbling in recent months. 

The House of Commons has now revealed it spent £762,292 on ‘structures for queue and media’, while the House of Lords spent £508,195, bringing the total spent just setting up the queue and media access to it to £1.27 million. There were separate costs reported for ‘broadcasting and media’ of £37,361.

They also reported £2.91 million of ‘workforce costs’ associated with the lying-in-state and related events staged by Parliament. While the data does not go into more detail, there will have been many staffing activities associated with the queue itself, from security to ticketing. 

Overall, ‘Operation Marquee’ – which the Parliamentary events that began following the death of the Queen were collectively known as – cost the two houses £8.2 million through either operational costs or lost income. 

In an online statement, Parliament said: “The lying-in-state allowed hundreds of thousands of people from all over the United Kingdom and the wider world to pay their respects to Her late Majesty. During this period, Parliament also played host to many overseas heads of state and hundreds of national and international media representatives who came to Westminster to cover the events.

“Preparations commenced immediately following the announcement of Her Majesty’s passing on Thursday 8 September and continued unabated and on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week basis until the Parliamentary estate returned to business as usual some 14 days later. Work related to the winding down of these events in Parliament, known as Operation Marquee, continued for several weeks after that.”

The full costs reported by the House of Commons (HoC) and House of Lords (HoL) were:

• Project shutdown costs and restart - £2,251,294 for HoC, £1,025,975 for HoL, total of £3,277,269
• Workforce costs - £1,745,123 for HoC, £1,164,150 for HoL, total of £2,909,273
• Structures for queue and media - £762,292 for HoC, £508,195 for HoL, total of £1,270,486
• Lost income (catering) - £208,644 for HoC, £104,066 for HoL, total of £312,710
• Lost income (tours) - £97,889 for HoC, £41,952 for HoL, total of £139,841
• Catering - £99,504 for HoC, £17,773 for HoL, total of £117,277
• Logistics - £36,307 for HoC, £24,205 for HoL, total of £60,511
• Cleaning - £26,436 for HoC, £17,624 for HoL, total of £44,059
• Broadcasting and Media - £17,078 for HoC, £20,283 for HoL, total of £37,361
• Loss Transport Subsidy (tours) - £12,445 for HoC, £5,333 for HoL, total of £17,778
• Works of Art - £6,093 for HoC, £4,062 for HoL, total of £10,154
• Office equipment & supplies - £1,812 for HoC, £4,130 for HoL, total of £5,943

Yesterday (18 May) the Treasury published an estimate of the cost of the Queen’s funeral and national mourning period for the first time, putting the figure at £162 million (we explained at the time why we do not think this figure reflects the full picture).

This only covered costs that the main government departments and the devolved national governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland said they had borne. A Treasury spokesperson has now confirmed that since the UK Parliament is not part of government nor funded by the Treasury, its costs were not included in their estimate.

In March we also revealed how the London Fire Brigade was left with a £1 million bill from the funeral and mourning period. It had published information on its website about the extensive role it would play, which involved looking after people in the queue, with firefighters and appliances stationed round the clock at 10 points along the route.

We have also been compiling costs that police forces, ambulance services and fire and rescue brigades around the country said they incurred from the funeral and mourning period.  The enormous costs associated with the royal funeral have been condemned by republican campaigners, who have questioned why the state – and taxpayers by extension – had to pay the bill rather than the King and Royal Family at large. 

Speaking in March, Graham Smith, chief executive officer of campaign group Republic – who was recently controversially arrested while attempting to peacefully protect the coronation of King Charles III – said: “Time and again the royals expect everything to be paid for by the hard-pressed public. At the time of the Queen’s death Charles avoided an inheritance tax valued at hundreds of millions of pounds – why wasn’t some of that used to cover the cost of the funeral? It’s time the royals paid for their own public events.”