Charles faces move to strip him of special legal privileges

Prince Charles is facing a campaign in the British parliament to strip him and his estate of special privileges including tax exemptions and immunity from legislation covering everything from squatting to planning.
A radical bill is to be put before the House of Lords proposing to remove special treatment of the prince and the Duchy of Cornwall, his inherited 800-million-pound estate that provides him with a 19-million-pound a year private income.
The move, by Labour peer Lord Berkeley, also exposes little-known exemptions from laws enforced on everyone else by at least eight acts of parliament, the Guardian reported.
In his capacity as the Duke of Cornwall, the 65-year-old prince cannot be prosecuted for breaches of planning laws such as building without permission or breaking the terms of planning consents, which would normally attract fines of up to 50,000 pounds.

Charles is the eldest child and heir apparent of Queen Elizabeth II.
The prince's estate also enjoys an exemption from people registering land under squatters' rights or other forms of "adverse possession" until they have occupied it for 60 years, compared with 10 years for other landowners. Neither is it obliged to allow Duchy leaseholders to buy their freeholds.

"It is time for parliament to consider the increasingly urgent matter of the Prince of Wales's status and to modernise this medieval situation," Berkeley said.
"The government and duchy both say the duchy is in the private sector yet it pays voluntary tax, gets free advice from government lawyers and has exemptions from legislation that applies to other private sector bodies."

Berkeley's bill would strip the prince of his power of veto over new legislation that might affect his private interests, the report said. Since 2005, ministers from at least six departments have sought his consent to draft bills on everything from road safety to gambling and the London Olympics.
Berkeley also wants parliament to remove the prince's right to claim legacies from ordinary people who die intestate in Cornwall. This right to bona vacantia provided more than 450,000 pounds in 2012 and latest accounts show he is sitting on 3.3 million pounds in cash from many years of collecting Cornish legacies.

Reacting to Berkeley's move, a spokeswoman for Prince Charles said: "We do not comment on parliamentary procedure." His representatives have previously argued that bona vacantia money is used for charitable donations.
Berkeley's bill is unlikely ever to become law, but it is intended to add to the debate about some of the more controversial aspects of the prince's status, the paper said.
Dr John Kirkhope, the legal scholar who has investigated the prince's special status, said the various arrangements were "profoundly offensive" and should be ended.