The Duke of Edinburgh has long referred to the British royal family as “the Firm”, so perhaps we should not be surprised by moves to build an element of performance-related pay into the Civil List – the income the monarchy is paid by the taxpayer to fund its official duties. It is surely nothing more than good business practice.

The Civil List has long been a contentious issue, not least for republicans, who object to taxpayer funds going to fund a lavish royal lifestyle. Sensitive, as ever to the fickle wind of public opinion, the Queen has been scaling back the scope of the list for some time. On the other hand the Queen and Prince of Wales remain exempt from inheritance tax and enjoy a personal fortune estimated by Forbes at around ￡300m. There are other perks too; they rarely struggle to get a restaurant reservation, for example.

Under the plan, the 250-year-old Civil List will be replaced by a new fund drawn as a percentage of revenue of the Crown Estate – ￡6.6bn worth of property and land. The more money the estate generates, the higher their potential remuneration.