The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: is this a crisis for the monarchy?

It was reported yesterday that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (previously referred to as Prince Andrew) had been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace. The arrest has provoked a lot remark and lots of questions, akin to will he get particular therapy, what constitutes misconduct of workplace, how lengthy would possibly a prosecution take, and can he be faraway from the road of succession? Robert Hazell solutions a few of these questions under.

The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on 19 February led to a deluge of media requests asking about its significance, and the potential affect on the monarchy. Right here are probably the most regularly requested questions, along with some fast solutions. 

Is that this a disaster for the royal household, and the monarchy? 

Sure, and no. It’s a disaster for the household: any household can be devastated when informed {that a} shut member of the family had been arrested for a critical offence.  

However it isn’t essentially a disaster for the monarchy as an establishment. The general public are completely able to distinguishing between their perspective to a person, and the establishment. In January YouGov reported that 90% of Britons had a destructive opinion of Mountbatten-Windsor, however that had no knock-on impact on different royals. 60% of individuals had a optimistic view of King Charles; and 64% believed Britain ought to proceed to have a monarchy, in keeping with the 61-67% who’ve felt so all through his reign. 

We should await future opinion polls to see if that’s nonetheless the case. Attitudes might change if proof emerges that the Palace has been concerned in any type of cowl up. However prior to now, the general public’s assist for the monarchy has remained remarkably excessive, and secure, regardless of occasional scandals, like Queen Elizabeth’s annus horribilis in 1992. 

As a former royal Duke, is he entitled to any particular therapy with the regulation? 

No, he isn’t entitled to any particular therapy. He has the identical rights and duties as every other citizen. This contains the proper to be accompanied by a lawyer at any police interview, and to stay silent if he chooses to take action. 

King Charles has made it clear that the regulation should take its course, and the Palace stands prepared to assist the police and different authorities with their enquiries. On 19 February the King issued this assertion: 

I’ve discovered with the deepest concern the information about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public workplace. What now follows is the complete, truthful and correct course of by which this challenge is investigated by the applicable authorities. On this, as I’ve mentioned earlier than, they’ve our full and wholehearted assist and co-operation. 

Let me state clearly: the regulation should take its course.  

Ought to Mountbatten-Windsor be stripped of his remaining titles? 

As I mentioned in a blogpost printed in December, though he has been faraway from the Roll of the Peerage, Mountbatten-Windsor stays Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh. Laws can be required to strip him of those remaining titles. The federal government has promised to introduce laws to strip Lord (Peter) Mandelson of his peerage: at Prime Minister’s Questions on 4 February Keir Starmer mentioned: ‘I’ve instructed my staff to draft laws to strip Mandelson of his title, and wider laws to take away disgraced friends’. We don’t but know the scope of the proposed laws; however it may very well be framed to incorporate Andrew. 

Ought to Mountbatten-Windsor be faraway from the road of succession? 

That will require laws, however it might be far harder, as a result of it might require the involvement of the opposite 14 international locations all over the world which share the British monarch as their head of state: international locations like Australia, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea. The final time this occurred was for the Succession to the Crown Act 2013, which made the regulation of royal succession gender impartial. It took two years of protracted negotiations for all of the totally different international locations to amend their very own legal guidelines or constitutions. With Mountbatten-Windsor being solely eighth in line, it appears extremely unlikely that the UK authorities or the opposite governments will wish to expend time eradicating him from the road of succession. 

Produce other royal households had related difficulties? 

Sure. In Norway, the son of the Crown Princess Marius Borg Høiby is presently standing trial for expenses of tried rape and sexual assault. In Spain, the previous King, Juan Carlos, was investigated in 2020 for accepting potential kickbacks on a big contract with Saudi Arabia, and successfully went into exile. The present Spanish King’s brother-in-law Iñaki Urdangarin was sentenced in 2017 to serve six years in jail for fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion. 

When was the final time a British royal was in bother with the regulation? 

In 2002 Princess Anne pleaded responsible at Slough magistrates’ court docket to an offence underneath the Harmful Canines Act, after her bull terrier had bitten two kids in Windsor Nice Park. She was fined £500 and ordered to pay £250 compensation. 

How lengthy would possibly the police enquiries take? 

The enquiries would possibly take a while. Mountbatten-Windsor was Commerce Envoy from 2001 to 2011. A lot of the proof is more likely to be documentary, retrieved from hiss emails and the recordsdata of businesses like UK Commerce and Funding, and authorities departments like the Division of Commerce (now Enterprise and Commerce), the Overseas Workplace, Cupboard Workplace and Quantity 10. Authorities information from that way back will take time to search out and produce.

How lengthy will the Crown Prosecution Service take earlier than deciding whether or not to prosecute? 

The police will submit all of the proof they’ve gathered to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The CPS in flip will want time to contemplate whether or not there’s a ample case to prosecute, for a standard regulation offence, the definition of which is just not crystal clear (see under). They can even must liaise intently with the staff investigating Lord (Peter) Mandelson, if the police go a file on him to the CPS, as a result of there can be similarities within the evidential and authorized difficulties in proving misconduct in every case. In such excessive a profile case, they may additionally wish to seek the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson.

What’s misconduct in public workplace? 

 Misconduct in public workplace is a standard regulation offence, which implies it isn’t derived from an Act of Parliament, and subsequently not outlined by laws. The weather of the offence had been summarised by the Courtroom of Attraction in 2004. It’s dedicated by:

A public officer, performing as such, [who] 

wilfully misconducts himself 

to such a level as to abuse the general public’s belief within the workplace holder 

with out cheap excuse or justification. 

The primary difficulties might lie in proving that when performing as Commerce Envoy, Mountbatten-Windsor was the holder of a public workplace; and that his conduct was akin to to abuse the general public’s belief. On the latter, the Courtroom of Attraction mentioned it should quantity to ‘an affront to the standing of the general public workplace held. The edge is a excessive one requiring conduct thus far under acceptable requirements as to quantity to an abuse of the general public’s belief within the workplace holder’. 

If he is prosecuted, how lengthy would possibly it take earlier than a trial might happen? 

It may very well be a really lengthy time earlier than any trial takes place. The Leveson evaluation discovered a backlog of virtually 80,000 circumstances awaiting trial within the Crown Courtroom final September, and forecast that this could enhance to 100,000 circumstances by November 2027. Some defendants are already being informed their circumstances won’t be heard till 2030. Causes would possibly should be discovered for Mountbatten-Windsor’s case to be expedited whether it is to leap the queue.  

Along with this weblog, Robert has beforehand written about how Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is perhaps formally disadvantaged of his titles. A blogpost by Robert on stripping Lord Mandelson of his peerage can be printed on Monday 23 February.  

Concerning the creator 

Professor Robert Hazell is the founding father of the Structure Unit and served as Director from 1995 to 2015. 

Featured picture: Sandringham Home (CC BY 2.0) by John D Fielding.

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