Palace accounts made public

The Queen paid for garden parties for 70,000 guests

Spending by the Queen as head of state has increased by 1%, new figures reveal.

Buckingham Palace has confirmed that her outgoings rose last year from £34.9m to £35.3m.

Palace Accounts 2001 (2000)

Salaries £6m (£4.6m)

Wines and beverages £45,000 (£107,000)

Garden parties £442,000 (£430,000)

Furnishings & equipment £116,000 (£57,000)

Carriage processions £82,000 (£111,000)

The figures were released on Thursday in line with new moves to make the Queen's accounts more open.

For the first time, members of the public can look at the spending of the royal household annually - instead of every 10 years.

The extra spending has been put down mainly to fire safety work at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

But it is still a considerable saving on the £84.6m she spent in 1991-92.

The latest accounts show spending on travel by air and rail fell from £5,368,000 in 2000-01 to £4,936,000 in 2001-02.

Property maintenance and services increased from £15,290,000 to £15,522,000.

Click here to find out more about the accounts

The expenditure is met from public funds in exchange for the surrender by the Queen of the revenue from the Crown Estate which has increased from £93.5m in 1991-92 to £148m last year.

The Palace accounts show that the Queen received a Civil List payment of taxpayers' money of £8,153,000 in 2001 compared with £6,509,000 in 2000.

Sir Michael Peat is credited with saving "millions"

The increase utilises part of a £35m reserve fund from savings in previous years.

The annual Civil List, fixed for a 10-year period, meets central staff costs and running expenses of the Queen's official household.

Of the £8,153,000 million, £6,057,000 (74%) was the salary costs of 284 full-time staff.

During the year, spending from the Civil List, in addition to enabling the Queen to undertake her constitutional duties as head of state, helped support the Queen in fulfilling:

• 2,200 official engagements
• Entertaining around 70,000 people at garden parties, state banquets and receptions
• Holding 22 investitures for some 2,600 people
• Sending 21,000 anniversary messages
• Handling more than 49,000 items of correspondence.

It is believed the Queen is hoping to build on the huge success of the Jubilee celebrations, by being more "open" with her accounts.

The Jubilee celebrations were interpreted by some as a boost in popularity for the royals, and this latest move as a further attempt to modernise the monarchy.

Publishing this civil list is one of the last developments for Sir Michael Peat, who leaves as keeper of the privy purse next month to become private secretary to the Prince of Wales.

Mr Peat is credited with saving millions of pounds.

Civil list payments have been restricted to the Queen, Queen Mother and Prince Philip since 1993.

The Queen does not reveal her private wealth, estimated by the Sunday Times Rich List to be £275m.