A group of MPs will today question for the first time how the Queen and the Prince of Wales spend up to £20 million a year from their private estates.

The hearing follows a decade-long campaign by Alan Williams, the deputy chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, to get the royal family to explain how they spend their private finances.

The committee will also use a rare right to hold a hearing without the assistance of a report from the National Audit Office, parliament's financial watchdog.