Prince Charles faces new meddling claim

London: Prince Charles is facing fresh accusations of meddling in government policy after it emerged he had written directly to ministers in eight Whitehall departments over the last three years.

The heir to the throne, who has strong views on the environment, farming and architecture, wrote to ministers in departments including the Treasury, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the education department.

Documents obtained by the Guardian also reveal his advisers pressed senior cabinet ministers to bring government policy into line with the prince's beliefs. The disclosures will fuel growing concern the prince is continuing to interfere in political matters when many believe he should remain neutral if he wishes to become king.

Fresh evidence

The fresh evidence of his lobbying was obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, although Whitehall departments refused to release the content of the letters. The Guardian has established that since 2006 Charles wrote to politicians leading eight government departments and his advisers wrote to five.

The departments released correspondence from senior aides who run his architectural charity to Hazel Blears, then secretary of state for communities. They show how his charity urged the government to adopt Charles' favoured approach to the ecotowns initiative.

They also wrote to Patricia Hewitt, who was health secretary, to recommend all hospital trusts planning new buildings should use the design technique pioneered by Charles' architecture charity.

Separately they pressed Andy Burnham, chief secretary to the Treasury at the time, to consider the findings of a study into sustainable ways of increasing the housing supply "which provides support for the [prince's] Foundation's mission to promote timeless and ecological ways of planning, designing and building."

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, said: "He has to be very careful to respect the traditional separation between the democratically accountable parts of the constitution and the ceremonial parts."

The ex-sports minister Richard Caborn said it was wrong to keep the letters secret. In future, however, it is possible the government will choose never to disclose the prince's correspondence with ministers.

Ministers said there was "a well-established constitutional doctrine that the heir to the throne has a right and duty to be instructed in the business of government in preparation for the time when he himself will be the sovereign."

Clarence House denied on Wednesday the prince's household had lobbied the government to stop all disclosures of his letters and defended his right to secrecy.