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Royal family’s shocking immunity in the face of regular laws
Rules and regulations which can ache, as a royal you get to break!
Not all is gloom and doom within the royal circle, as much as they would have you believe.
Indeed, where the Firm may seem like it is burdened with great responsibility, its royal status confirms a greater level of immunity from legal repercussions.
Whether everyday laws or relatively strict violations, here are some of the rules which members of the royal family are exempt from:
Sovereign immunity
The foremost exemption is for the crowned monarch, which would be King Charles at the moment.
Sovereign immunity means that the King is entirely spared from any legal proceedings in a court of law — according to Time, “Currently, more than 30 different laws bar the police from entering private royal estates without the sovereign’s permission to investigate suspected crimes.”
Passport free travel
While royals other than the monarch are required to carry passports, the King or Queen, once again, are exempt from this rule.
Per the royal family’s official website, “As a British passport is issued in the name of His Majesty, it is unnecessary for The King to possess one. All other Members of the Royal Family, including The Queen and The Prince of Wales, have passports.”
Speed regulations
Since the royal family are always accompanied by a police convoy while being driven on their official duties, their vehicles are exempt from adhering to speed limits.
Driver’s license
Another road law the monarch is exempt from? They are not required to hold a driver’s license.
Once again, it is so because licenses in the country are issued in the King or Queen’s name.
Tax exemptions
Probably the most lethal of all the rules which the monarch is allowed to surpass; they are exempt from paying taxes in certain circumstances.
As stated in the Sovereign Grant Act of 2011, the King or Queen are not “legally liable to pay income tax, capital gains tax, or inheritance tax because the relevant enactments do not apply to the Crown.”
Exemption from Equality Act
British laws against racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace were introduced in the 1970s and were later confirmed within the 2010 Equality Act.
However, the royal household was initially exempt from these laws altogether, revealed documents obtained by The Guardian.
“This means that any individuals working for the royal family cannot file a complaint to the court if they faced any discrimination under the categories of race, sex, and equal pay,” reported Time.
