Royal family: King Charles’s 2002 letter on “red tape” released

There have been previous claims that Charles was trying to “meddle” in government policy which he should not be doing as a member of the Royal Family.

In the February 2002 letter to Lord Irvine, who as lord chancellor was a senior legal aide to Mr Blair, Charles said he had previously written outlining his concerns over what he called an “increasing litigiousness” in UK society.

Some detail of the correspondence has been leaked previously.

In the full letter – which the former Prince of Wales himself calls “rather over-long” – he expresses concern over “extreme examples of litigation” and “bureaucratic red tape”.

He wrote: “The more I have thought about this group of issues, the more convinced I am that we are heading for increasing difficulty in many walks of life.”

He identified problem areas, including social care volunteers unable to deliver hot meals, elderly people in care homes unable to open fire doors as they are too heavy, and infrequent live-firing training for soldiers.

“I am in little doubt that in the broadest sense, the proliferation of rules and rights, makes people overcautious, stifles initiative and acts as a brake on creative thinking,” he said.

“The armed forces are an important example. Armies fight as they train. If you wish to do well in high-intensity war-fighting, you must also train at a high level of intensity.

“But because modern safety precautions are so strict, live-firing exercises happen with much less frequency than they used to”.