A Feb. 16 filing from the judge overseeing the case states that that the U.K. Home Office plans to oppose Harry’s challenge. It says the group maintains that the duke has “failed to afford the necessary measures of respect to the Home Office and RAVEC [Royal and VIP Executive Committee]As the “expert” and democratically accountable decision-maker in matters of protection security and related risk assessment.
The filing adds that the Home Office also maintains that Harry’s “offer of private funding is irrelevant,” adding that “personal protective security by the police is not available on a privately financed basis, and that he also allegedly did not offer to pay for police protection when he returned to the U.K. in June.
In a January statement, after the court challenge was made public, Harry’s legal representative said that the duke “inherited a security risk at birth, for life” and that in recent years, “his family has been subjected to well-documented neo-Nazi and extremist threats.” Harry’s lawyer noted that Harry was “insecure” because of the absence of protection from police during his June trip.
Harry and Meghan fund their private security guards in the United States. However, they “cannot reproduce the police protection required while in the U.K.” Harry’s lawyer stated in January that the team could not replicate that protection and that Prince Harry and his family “cannot return to their home in the absence of such protection.”