£12 million a year: The real cost of Harry and Meghan private security bill

The Telegraph Harry and Meghan are firmly back on UK soil but questions surrounding their security status are still up in the air Welcome to this special edition of The Royalty looking at the Sussexes security with me Camilla Tominey and me Victoria Ward You'd probably need a protocol of a security team of around 10 to 12 men Your costs would be in the range of £7 to £12 million a year What? The school run is a very, you know, it's a pressurised route for security to look at That run needs to be done, even before the children go to school in the morning that run's got to be done before they go What do you mean, recce-ed? Yeah, you've got to do a recce-ed and then the route has got to be changed, you know, every day You can't do the same route every single day Do you know, something's just dawned on me as you're saying that This does explain why the children of so many royals and high net worth individuals board Vicky, before we speak to Paul Lewis, who is a Jack Reacher lookalike who may have killed a man, we don't know certainly would take a bullet for one of his clients and I think probably regularly speaks into cuffs Without a doubt In doubt, yes, exactly Drives around in a big blacked out Range Rover You get the scene and we're going to discuss in general the Sussex's security what they're wanting, what they might get and how much it might cost but a couple of updates to mention before we get to that interview which is well worth watching because it's amazing to see how the security sausage is made, isn't it? So two extraordinary developments Let's deal with the latest one first of all, which is that Harry and Meghan have had to move the children Archie and Lilibet from the school that they had originally enrolled them in following this move to Blighty We believe they're in the Cotswolds We're not going to be mentioning names of their address or the school or even much about the local area because we do not want to compromise their own safety Of course we don't But they've now taken the children out of this school and put them in another school Yes, so the whole reason why they came in August so last minute and they suddenly appeared in the UK was because they suddenly got these places at this school that's what they've always said that they'd been on the waiting list and these places suddenly popped up so it was their kind of catalyst for it all They did two days last week the normal beginning of term with all the other children and it was such a disaster in terms of the daily commute it was so awful and so unexpectedly bad that they've pulled them out and put them somewhere else already Now any mum or dad that's done the school run will say well listen, we could have told you this the whole thing's a nightmare country lanes in the Cotswolds I've got the same experience in Hertfordshire where basically taking the children down a single track lane to school having to reverse into parking paces stationary for hours on end while people try and reverse and it all goes horribly wrong Listen, that's my own private Idaho They should have known surely they should have recce'd these routes and known that they could be in stationary traffic for some time which of course is where the risk is at They don't want to be sitting ducks on this school run, right? So the security team did recce the routes in the summer holidays They obviously only got the school places after the school had already broken up in the summer Well recceing in the holidays So they recce'd in the holidays at the right time but obviously you're not going to get the school traffic No But the problem is, the interesting thing is really with this particular school the traffic is really notoriously bad like all the parents talk about it Some of the parents, somebody was saying to me today some of the parents have started putting their children into two or three nightly boarding in a week just to avoid the awful traffic on the school run It's that bad So it does seem astonishing that they didn't know about it The school maybe hadn't warned them or other parents hadn't warned them And with this particular school one of the main problems was that there's a little lane that comes out of the school that you have to take to get out of the grounds and it feeds into a really, really busy main road and so one of the issues was that you could be sitting there for five minutes waiting to pull out onto this main road which was problematic in itself but then their convoy was getting split up because they couldn't stay together with the security team who followed behind Got it, okay So they've moved them somewhere closer to home so they don't have such a long way to go Yes, and apparently the mood in the camp with the security team and the family is much happier they're much calmer, they recognise that this is the right one and it just feels better all around Do they need to be telling us all of this? Well, I don't think they were going to announce they weren't going to tell us about the school thing I think one of the parents at the new school because they started on Monday and Harry and Meghan have already been added into these parents' WhatsApp groups Oh my God, I'd love that so much I'd love Meghan on my. And it's through the parents that this has come out Imagine Meghan on your school WhatsApp Has anyone seen Archie's sweatshirt? Does anyone know if it's PE today? Yeah, Lilibet says I need to attend the PTA meeting I'll bring cookies She could bake cake Lemon, lemon, what does she do? Olive, lemon, olive cake Just the sheer joy of it or like you turn up at school Turn up at some kind of parental quiz night And she's there on a table with her pen and a pencil Oh my God, I'm good on Netflix shows and modern culture I've got some legal training Wonderful So there's that Although the other observation that's been made is why is there always such drama around the Sussexes? Correct me if I'm wrong but hasn't Kate and William been doing a school run for years now with no problems whatsoever? No problems, I know It does seem to follow It feels like they can't quite do anything without a massive circus and drama and problems, doesn't it? And another of your scoops this week has been the revelation that Meghan will now have a risk assessment carried out by RAVEC the committee that belongs to the Home Office that assesses VIPs and royals for whether they merit taxpayer-funded security Yes, so she's never had one since she was a working royal so we don't think, certainly not since 2019 Harry had one in July It's a thing he'd been fighting for for years and years through the courts to get this risk assessment that could then declare what kind of threat level he's at That's what he wanted He had one in July but it was when they were still living in the States and hadn't told anybody that they were moving back So RAVEC met last week and they've agreed that they need to have a new risk assessment now The circumstances have completely changed for the whole family So it's Meghan and Harry and they want to know all about the daily routines the school runs, the timings, the A to B where they socialise They want to know everything about their pattern of life So they've got the full picture so they can then make a proper decision an informed decision about whether they need police protection Okay, so let's get into the nuts and bolts of it all now because we don't know what a security operation looking after Harry, Meghan and the children would actually look like No But we know a man who does So coming up next we're going to be speaking to Paul Lewis who knows his onions when it comes to how to protect rich, important people Paul, welcome Give us some of your background What do you actually do and why do you do it? We've been in this industry for just over ten years now but primarily a lot of my expertise comes from my father who was Royal Protection some 25 years ago when it wasn't Revec that was in charge of it It was more Scotland Yard at that particular point in time Who did he look after, Paul? He looked after Prince Philip So he sort of guided me down the private investigation route which is something that we've got a vast amount of experience in and from the private investigation point of view and from the private investigation industry we were questioned about looking after high profile individuals for security aspects And how difficult is that task? It really depends on the person you're looking after the political risks whether they're a high profile individual what their current circumstances are what the social media risks are around that particular individual given the circumstance of how things are moving in these current times really Just out of interest then if we're talking about Harry and Meghan specifically today I know you've got no specific experience of them but with a couple like that do you think with your expertise that a private security team could effectively manage their security or do you agree with them that they should have police protection? I think that given the circumstances of who they are they would need police protection really because police protection can carry guns and protect them at a different level whereas private protection can't carry guns in this country so given the circumstances of the threat levels I think it's important that they would have police protection I mean out of interest without guns what do you have to resort to in order to protect a high net worth individual? More men More men More men, a lot more men But is this literally Paul about you're surrounding somebody who is worth something maybe there's a kidnap risk maybe they are politically conscious somebody might be controversial and somebody might be out to get them Just tell us a little bit without too much revelation that could lead to compromising some of the security of your clients How do you actually manage that situation? How big is the operation? How much does it cost? And presumably all of your guys are trained in arm to, hand to, what do you call it? Hand to hand combat Post protection, hand to hand combat, yeah I think that you'd probably need a protocol of a security team 10 to 12 men I think for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle your costs would be in the range of 7 to 12 million pounds a year What? Yeah, for private security Why is it? That's extraordinary Because you'd need to have people on the estate people marking out routes that they're attending the children going to school I mean there's a vast amount of detail that goes into any security process but given the circumstances of the way that they left the UK UK and what's currently going on today is I think that they're at high risk vicky do we think that they're spending that already on their private security i don't know how much they're spending but it is millions we know it is yeah and the estimate put on them having police protection here has been is is around five million a year it may be a bit higher yeah now harry doesn't dispute that but i think what what his argument is five million is a drop in the ocean of the wider budget and i don't know whether that's true but it's estimated it's believed i don't know whether this is true that but the royalty protection budget is around 300 million a year so harry's argument is five million a year is a drop in the ocean and they can afford it why would it cost less for the police to protect them than it would private individuals i think the police have got better resources yes um which obviously private protection just doesn't have the level of resources that they've got you know to provide helicopters and route mapping every single day and you know you'd need people monitoring social intelligence um political risk intelligence i think that you know police have got divisions that can accommodate them circumstances on a day by day basis but if you had you know when you use private security companies they just don't have that level of staff to assist through the course of that process so say if it was 7 to 12 million the other obvious conclusion to leap to is the other reason they want the police to protect them is because it's really expensive i don't think they would i don't think there's a dispute about that or that they don't make it the plank of their public argument harry has acknowledged that it would cost millions to protect his family he knows that he even offered to pay for the police bodyguards right and then they said well we can't do that because then that sets a precedent that anybody who thinks that they might be at risk is going to ask for the sale yeah the police is not for sale quite so i mean that's blowing my mind a bit i knew they were paying a lot but i thought it was something in the region of about you know 200 grand a month which i suppose does add up to that does add up to a lot of money but certainly not nearly 12 million so harry and megan have two full-time private protection officers and they are chris sanchez and david langsdale known as langers who's been with harry since his days in the uk back in the royal family so that's i suppose that's a little bit different to the 7 to 12 people that you're talking about but now they're back here we know one of their biggest concerns is the school run the school runs are very you know it's a yeah that's a particularly um pressurized route for security to look at that run needs to be done before even before the children go to school in the morning that run's got to be done before they go what do you mean yeah you've got to do a recce and scan every day no and then the route has got to be changed every you know every day you can't do the same route every single day when you're delivering you're taking high profile people people's children to a school you know if there was if they was going to become a target at that particular point in time it'd be easy to get access to them so obviously you know officers that are in charge of these routes need to change them on a day-by-day basis do you know something's just dawned on me as you're saying that this does explain why i know it could be a cultural thing but why the children of so many royals and high net worth individuals bored genuinely yes it's because the school runs it's quite difficult and also you've then got to factor into that extracurricular activities somebody's got a football match here we all any parent knows what it's like to have kids and we're doing it completely you know without anybody really caring what we're up to paul has the kind of dynamics of all this change you mentioned social media earlier which really interests me has this job become much more complicated because of the digital sphere it has yeah because people are posting online all the time you know if they're posting particular locations of where where they're going to be or where they're going and that's going out on social media obviously obviously these places have got to be a game record before they attend these events and these um you know if they're going to a particular place restaurant the children are going somewhere these places need to be checked thoroughly before they attend the events also it's punters isn't it oh i've just seen them here you know if they're at an event and someone just takes photographs the next thing people can get to that place yeah yeah um what else do you do in this sphere so you're looking after people and and what does that look that like you're saying it's around the clock so you and your guys you're there day and night are you speaking into cuffs what are you doing how does it protect their property you need systems for ampr you need to monitor their automatic number plate recognition as they're coming into their estate if they're living in an estate um you need to understand the threat levels of the people that are attending where they're going where they're meeting um when the children are coming and going who's accessing accessing the property whether there's any devices that have been put in the vehicles or that are attending the property so there's a vast amount of work to be done which is behind the scenes that people normal people wouldn't really understand i know you're having to sleep in the house well you'd have you'd have men around the clock at the actual estate itself yeah and then on their holidays anywhere they go bulletproof vehicles you need you know you need specialist armored equipment um normally you would have that of a royal level but your normal ceo might have bulletproof vehicles and stuff like that but not obviously armed police i mean the personnel involved in this and i remember this when i used to cover the royals you know because you've got to have shifts you some people are there they're on they're there all night so they can't really go home then they're off for seven days and then somebody else is brought in is that what it looks like yes and where how do you recruit is it guys and gals just guys yeah guys and girls yeah yeah or gals as you like gals where'd you get them from who are these a lot of them are excess military um some police protection work for us currently um it's just people with a vast amount of experience and understanding what the risk analysis is to look after these individuals that are high profile people do you think it's important that they have a rapport with the principal the person they're protecting so they get to know because harry and william have spoken harry has spoken about he got to know his person when they were kids they knew them really well they well also when they were out on the lash they used to put them into bed looking after them yeah but but but they're with i mean there's no no great privacy so they're with these people all the time and it's that important they've obviously got to get on haven't they yeah they've got to get on i don't think it's important for every single you know uh close protection officer or security member to have a direct relationship with them there's got to be a chain of command but i certainly think that the two main um security officers that are in charge of you know prince harry and megan and the children i've got to have a close relationship with these people they've got to understand what their movements are on a day-to-day basis where they're going what their thought processes are and that way they can assess the risk according to what their movements currently are but what about the risks to you guys i mean do you go into this saying i will take a bullet for my client yes how does that feel it's um yeah i mean well this is what the guys are paid to do this is the job that they signed up for have you ever been injured in the line of duty personally no but i have some of my staff members that have had issues looking after you know very well-known ceos and there has been things who've been targeted when they've been targeted yeah yeah wow and do you have to kind of carry on having training it's all very well having learned things in the sas but that could be several years ago like how do you keep up to speed clearly you have to be physically fit i can see you paul channeling you're in a jack reacher i don't know if anyone else has noticed it but yeah i've heard that before but have you bench pressing yeah yeah just keeping in shape i'm just saying yeah keeping in shape on a day-to-day basis is uh quite important i mean you have to wrestle people to the ground you have to be fit yeah but you know he's gone red now you're making me go red i don't know why um you are in red um but yeah having a just having an understanding of you know looking after yourself and being physically fit and in shape and mentally on point to look after these individuals is part of the job that you're you know the task that you're acquired to to do it really and where does the biggest threat come from these days you mentioned your father working with prince philip and at the time i would imagine the biggest threat came from the ira not at that particular time mount batten was assassinated uh we've gone through that period haven't we have been worried about al-qaeda and other attacks on uk soil i mentioned earlier lone and fixated individuals and of course the other consequence of social media is people stalking uh high profile individuals and finding out more information about them just give us the lay of the land these days with who you're most worried about i think you're most worried about now the person that's not mentally stable the single person on their own because you don't really know when they're going to act yeah you know it's all far and well having intelligence coming through from different different countries and um but normally a high profile risk is is is this single male or female that's carrying a gun or a knife and no one's ever heard of them before these are a lot of the people that carry out the acts now i mean the grass you know the green grass of england is not so green anymore given the circumstances of you know the risk element and the people that are actually in this country at this point in time that's definitely harry and megan's biggest fear yeah this these fixated individuals and with the public narrative so against them on social media and all these mad people on social media fueling yeah this kind of narrative against them that just that's it's a it's a big thing isn't it well also let's look at what happened very recently to ann widdecombe mindful that proceedings are active in that case um i mean that would put the frighteners on anybody in public life yeah it's it's a very different place out there now i mean the the security that we look you know that we control at the moment everyone is um basically you know wanting security at their estates now whether they're a royal family or whether they're just normal people oh so you've had more inquiries coming in in recent years yeah we've got a lot of inquiries coming on a day-to-day basis people on close protection they're worried about their you know their valuables their properties their vehicles their children it's a very different world that we live in now is kidnapping still a risk and a threat i mean i say you hear less about it these days i'm thinking about sort of getty and i'm thinking about other high-profile cases but we say that over the last 20 months i've brought four children back to their families in the private investigation industry is what predominantly we do in the private investigation industry is what predominantly we do in the private investigation we you know we uh focus on we've had uh four child cases over the last 20 months one of them was in vietnam which is already in the press the oliver pew case i'm the guy that found oliver pew the child the three-year-old boy in vietnam i've recently just got back from that task remind us who he was snatched by he went he went missing from spain and we located him to vietnam and who took him a particular individual took him and and due to the the current interpol circumstances that they're struggling to get him back from vietnam at the moment but somebody unrelated to the child yes for money for a ransom for ransom that was that was one of the cases that i've dealt with over the last 20 months and the other three were they ransom cases were they because i thought you were going to say oh sometimes yeah a father will take a child or a mother will take a child yeah so these are ransom cases yes financial wow what does happen yeah finally paul what else do you get up to in your private investigator i've got a hell of a mission i'm to start in france with a gentleman that's run off with 11 million dollars of uh for an investment so i head out there this afternoon to locate that individual negotiate with him to get the money back and we go from there my god i'm not sure if i want to be this guy who's going away 11 million to open the door to to paul no i'm not sure i want to do the job what do you wear will you have you will you what i'll be going in these clothes today oh okay what powers of persuasion will you use paul on this man we'll just negotiate against the evidence that we've got right you know the evidence that we've collected from the digital forensic team um we understand that the subject this afternoon has taken the money uh we categorically know that and then we'll negotiate to get the money back or we'll put the paperwork together for the police to get a resolution through the crown does it get quite physical like would you expect we hope not this afternoon can it though it could do yeah but you know at the end of the day we're not paid for violence we're paid to get a resolution and that's you know that's the best foot forward really i wouldn't argue with you i've got to be honest i don't want to argue with you too well i think this is the most nerve-wracking interview i've ever done nothing paul is dealing with absolute wrong and it's day in day out and he's finding an interview on the daily t intimidating i'm absolutely horrified paul thank you for your insights it's fascinating i mean the 7 to 12 million pounds extraordinary isn't it does put things into perspective somewhat and we'll be continuing to follow the developments in the case of harry and megan security paul lewis thank you very much indeed thank you so much good luck in france appreciate your comment vicky we'll be back with more royalties in due course thank you very much you