Dear Sir or Madam,
I would like to know to what extent the Queen, Prince Charles and any other members of the Royal Family are subject to the law?

1) Are they able to be prosecuted for all crimes that a regular citizen of the country are?

2) For what crimes are they exempt from prosecution?
(please provide a list if there are any.)

3) Can they be called as witnesses in a court of law?

4) Can they be sued?

5) Has the Attorney Generals Office ever had meetings or discussions on the extent to which they are subject to the law? For example during the Burrell affair?
(if they have please provide copies of any notes, memos, emails or minutes from such meetings.)

6) Does the Attorney Generals Office have any internal guidelines, handbooks, policies on this subject?
(if so please provide copies.)

Yours faithfully,

Chand Bakshi

Dear James Ross,

thank you for your reply to my Freedom Of Information Request (Your Ref: FOI/35/09.)
I am somewhat confused as to why you are applying the Public Interest Test in Relations to Exemption 37 Communications with Her Majesty, etc. and honours
(1) Information is exempt information if it relates to—
communications with Her Majesty, with other members of the Royal Family or with the Royal Household,

I do not believe the exemption applies to any of the 6 questions in my requests and the exemption certainly does not apply to questions 1 to 4.

I therefore ask that you treat the questions in the request 1 to 4, as a separate request and answer them, as the exemption 37 clearly cannot apply here.

1) Are they able to be prosecuted for all crimes that a regular
citizen of the country are?

2) For what crimes are they exempt from prosecution? (Please
provide a list if there are any.)

3) Can they be called as witnesses in a court of law?

4) Can they be sued?

With regards questions 5 and 6 I believe you have erred in attempting to apply Exemption 37 Communications with Her Majesty, etc. and honours
(1) Information is exempt information if it relates to—
communications with Her Majesty, with other members of the Royal Family or with the Royal Household,

The exemption states that communications with the Royal Family and Household are exempt, not all matters relating to them. My request was for the minutes to meetings, internal guidelines and memos relating to the extent the Queen and Prince Charles subject to the law, not actual communications with the Royal Family and Household.
Even if these documents contained references to communications with the Royal Family and Household I’m sure that if necessary those parts could be redacted still leaving enough information to answer the request.
I therefore ask that you consider this point when applying the Public Interest Test in Relations to Exemption 37 to my request.

I would also like to take this opportunity point out, that just because an exemption might apply in certain cases, that does not mean it has to be applied.
The whole point of the freedom of information act was to allow the electorate to have more information to allow them to make government more accountable. There can be no more fundamental question of accountability than are we all equal under the law, or are some more equal than others.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Chand Bakshi

Dear James Ross,

Thank you for your reply, however I fear you have misinterpreted the nature of my request. I was not asking for legal advice, for I obviously have no need for any.
The nature of the questions in my request

1) Are they able to be prosecuted for all crimes that a regular
citizen of the country are?

2) For what crimes are they exempt from prosecution? (Please
provide a list if there are any.)

3) Can they be called as witnesses in a court of law?

4) Can they be sued?

were merely worded so you could fully answer the basic question, I therefore clarify the request and now ask simply,

1) Has the Attorney Generals Office ever come to the conclusion that the Queen,
Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from any law?
Does the Attorney Generals Office possess any documents stating the Queen,
Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from any law?
If so please provide a list of any laws the Queen, Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from and copies of any documents.

Please treat this as clarification of the previous request, or if need be as a new request.
If you are not able to answer this I request an internal review of the Attorney General's Office's handling of my FOI request 'To what extent are the Queen and Prince Charles subject to the law?’ (Specifically questions 1 to 4, now clarified as

1) Has the Attorney Generals Office ever come to the conclusion that the Queen,
Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from any law?
Does the Attorney Generals Office possess any documents stating the Queen,
Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from any law?
If so please provide a list of any laws the Queen, Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from and copies of any documents.

Questions 5 and 6 are undergoing a separate Public Interest Test in Relations to Exemption 37 and I reserve the right to request a separate Internal Review in the unlikely event Questions 5 and 6 are rejected)

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/to...

Yours sincerely,

Chand Bakshi

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Attorney General's Office's handling of my FOI request 'To what extent are the Queen and Prince Charles subject to the law?'.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/to...

My request applies mainly to the questions
5) Has the Attorney Generals Office ever had meetings or discussions on the extent to which they are subject to the law?

and

6) Does the Attorney Generals Office have any internal guidelines,handbooks, policies on this subject?

but by association also to question

1) Has the Attorney Generals Office ever come to the conclusion that the Queen, Prince Charles or any other members of the Royal Family are exempt from any law?

Yours faithfully,

Chand Bakshi