Sovereign Grant Bill: HL Bill 54 of 2026–27

Approximate read time: 20 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to debate the Sovereign Grant Bill on 14 October 2026. Second reading and all remaining stages are scheduled to take place on the same day.

• The sovereign grant is a grant paid from the public finances to the King to support the work of the sovereign in discharging his duties as head of state. The size of the sovereign grant is usually equal to a prescribed proportion of the Crown Estate’s profit in the financial year two years prior to the year in question. The Crown Estate manages land and property held “in right of the crown” and its net revenue profits are paid to the Treasury. The current rules for setting the amount of the sovereign grant are set out in the Sovereign Grant Act 2011.
• The Sovereign Grant Bill is a government bill which would amend the 2011 act in order to change the way in which the annual sovereign grant is set. It is intended to reduce the size of the sovereign grant following the completion of a 10-year works project on Buckingham Palace. To do this, it would fix the size of the grant for the 2027/28 financial year and change the percentage of the Crown Estate’s net revenue profits used to calculate the size of the sovereign grant in subsequent financial years.
• The bill would also give new powers for the Treasury to set the total amount of the grant, including a power to reduce the size of the grant in exceptional circumstances.
• The bill is a money bill. It received cross-party support and was not amended in the House of Commons. Only one amendment was tabled at committee stage, by the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, concerning the assessment of future changes to the way the grant is calculated and the procedure for parliamentary approval of these changes.

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