The Independent report:

The Treasury has refused to provide details of property deals worth more than £100m which it has approved on behalf of Prince Charles and his Duchy of Cornwall estate by insisting that the transactions are “private” and exempt from disclosure rules.

George Osborne’s department has rejected a Freedom of Information request from The Independent seeking disclosure of dozens of deals by the Duchy’s managers following the revelation that the estate spent £38.4m to add a supermarket warehouse to its substantial property portfolio.

Campaigners condemned the decision to withhold the records saying it placed the scrutiny of the Duchy behind a curtain of secrecy and means the public cannot be certain that the Treasury is holding the vast estate – run to provide an income for the heir to the throne – to account.

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Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.