HERE ARE PRINCE CHARLES' SECRET LETTERS TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN FULL

Secret letters sent from Prince Charles to British government ministers were finally published on Wednesday after a 10-year legal battle to reveal their contents.

They are dubbed the "black spider memos" because of Prince Charles' distinctive spirally handwriting.

You can read them in full here.

Summary of the letters

Charles Clarke, then the Education Secretary, wrote to The Prince of Wales in response to The Prince of Wales previous letter highlighting the importance of quality food provision in schools.

• Charles Clarke's reply explained the action that was being taken by government departments to address the issue of nutrition. He acknowledged the evidence that demonstrates a link between a healthy diet and improved child behaviour. He stated approval of regional efforts to improve food quality in schools and to promote the use of sustainable produce.
• The Prince of Wales's Summer Schools: The exchange of letters between the Prince of Wales and Charles Clarke and Ruth Kelly stemmed from the success of the first 3 Summer Schools.

Correspondence between Prince Charles with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the Secretary of State for Health, John Reid.

• The European Directive on Traditional Herbal Medical Products (THMPD) was enacted into UK law in 2004, and fully implemented in 2011. According to the European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association (EHTPA), this left many practitioners of herbal medicine unregulated. This, in turn, meant that a significant number of herbal remedies, on which patients had come to rely, disappeared.
• In 2005 the Department of Health was considering regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture, following the European Directive.

Prince of Wales correspondence with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell.

• His Royal Highness added his voice to concerns about the future of Smithfield Market.
• The Prince contacted the Secretary of State after hearing that the future of huts built by the British polar explorers Scott and Shackleton was under threat.

Background

In 2005, Guardian journalist Rob Evans applied for a Freedom of Information Request to see letters from from the Prince of Wales sent to seven Whitehall departments between 2004 and 2005.

The government has fought against publication of the letters because they could expose Prince Charles' personal views on a variety of topics. This is damaging because the Royal family is expected to remain politically neutral (which is why, for instance, the Queen abstains from voting in general elections even though she is entitled to do so).

However, after a decade-long battle between Whitehall and the Guardian, a collection of 27 letters will be released after the Supreme Court ruled in March they they must be made public.

The letters from the Prince of Wales have been dubbed the "spider memos" because of Charles' handwriting, as seen on earlier letters to government ministers.

The letters that are being published in Wednesday's dump were sent to Labour ministers at several government departments which included business, innovation and skills, children, schools and families, health and the environment, food and rural affairs and culture, media and sport.

In 2012, the letters were nearly published but the attorney general at the time, Dominic Grieve, vetoed the information tribunal's decision to allow the public to read the letters because they "contain remarks about public affairs which would in my view, if revealed, have had a material effect upon the willingness of the government to engage in correspondence with the Prince of Wales, and would potentially have undermined his position of political neutrality."

However, Freedom of Speech supporters, such as the Guardian, say it is in the public's interest to know how Prince Charles used his position as a member of the Royal family to influence or intervene in legislation or policies that would affect the ordinary Briton.

On Tuesday, an upper tribunal in London upheld the Supreme Court's March decision to allow the letters to be published under the classification of "open material" and this means the Guardian and other parties are able to publish the content of that material without restriction.

However, some redactions were made to the letters, where the court deemed parts of the content to not be in the public's interest.

A spokesperson for Clarence House, which represents the Royal family, told the Guardian newspaper last month that it was "disappointed that the principle of privacy has not been upheld."