Prince Harry loses High Court challenge over UK security levels

LONDON: The Duke of Sussex has lost a High Court challenge against the government over his security when in the UK, BBC News reported.

Prince Harry was contesting a decision to downgrade his security status when he stopped being a working royal.

He argued he had been treated unfairly in the changes to his police protection, when he still faced significant security threats. Prince Harry is to appeal against the court’s ruling that there was nothing unlawful in these security decisions.

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“The duke is not asking for preferential treatment,” said his lawyers after the High Court ruling, but they argue there has been an unfairness in how decisions were made about his publicly-funded police protection.

When Prince Harry stepped back from being a working royal and moved to the US, he was no longer automatically provided with the same level of police protection given to the Royal Family, but instead had his security decided on a case-by-case basis, in the same way as other high-profile visitors to the UK.

Prince Harry’s attempt to challenge how this was decided has now been rejected, with the court upholding the actions of the committee that oversees security arrangements for the Royal Family and other high profile public figures, known as “Ravec”, which brings together representatives of the Home Office, Metropolitan Police and the Royal Household.

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The judge ruled there had been no unlawfulness in the decision-making or anything that could be called irrational in the changes to Prince Harry’s security in February 2020 – and even if there had been any “procedural unfairness” it would not have changed the outcome.

Much of the hearing had been heard in private for security reasons – and parts of the ruling were redacted – but the ruling found that the approach of having a “bespoke” arrangement for Prince Harry, rather than the same as working royals, was “legally sound”.

An earlier separate court ruling had rejected a bid by Prince Harry to make private financial payments for police protection when in the UK.

Prince Harry’s legal battles over his security in the UK have reflected his worries about his safety and for his family – with only a few brief visits to the UK in the past couple of years.

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The court documents highlight concerns such as Prince Harry being “ambushed” by paparazzi photographers at a WellChild awards event in Kew in London in June 2021.

This was more alarming “in the light of what happened to his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales”, the court was told.