The cost of minor royals to the taxpayers has been criticized

England have

A British monarch is to pay income tax for the first time since the 1930s.

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons the Queen had told him earlier this year that she wished to make changes to her tax arrangements.

She will also take responsibility for the working expenses of most of her family under changes John Major said should be implemented in April 1993.

The decision has been broadly welcomed by Westminster and is fully supported by the Prince of Wales, who already pays some tax on his income.

Buckingham Palace has denied the announcement is related to growing public concern about the rising cost of the monarchy.

Questions have been raised about who will foot the bill for repairing Windsor Castle, which was severely damaged in a fire last week.

But a palace spokesman said the Queen and Prince Charles had made their decision before the July summer recess of Parliament.

Under the new arrangement the only royals who will be paid for by the public will be the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother.

Chairman of the influential Tory backbench 1922 Committee Sir Marcus Fox said public pressure should now come off the monarchy.

And constitutional expert Lord St John of Fawsley said the decision proved the Queen was in tune with public opinion.

"She's a wise woman - she's known nine prime ministers and she's been on the throne for 40 years," he said.

But historian David Starkey told the BBC even bigger changes were needed.

"This is not the solution, this is simply addressing the symptom - the solution is to find something positive for the monarchy to do," he said. In Context

Since 2001 the monarchy have also published their annual accounts in an attempt to make royal finances more transparent.

The Queen's duties as head of state continue to be funded with public money. In 2001 and 2002 this expenditure was revealed to be about ?5m. Her personal fortune is estimated to be about ￡75m.    

The Brinks Mat warehouse was just outside the airport perimeter

Over ￡5m worth of gold bullion bound for the Far East was stolen from the Brinks Mat warehouse, about one mile outside the airportperimeter, between 0630 and 0815 GMT.

Police have said a group of at least six men overcame the guards and successfully disabled a huge array of electronic security devices.

Insurers have offered a reward of 3m for information leading to the recovery of the 6,800 gold bars - which are all identifiable by refiners' stamps.

The members of the gang - who were all armed and wearing balaclavas - also stole 200,000 worth of cut and uncut diamonds.

They dressed in security uniforms to get into the warehouse and then terrorised the guards into giving them the alarm codes.

All the guards were handcuffed, one was hit on the head with a pistol and two had petrol poured over them.

Once inside the safes, the robbers used the warehouse's own forklift trucks to transport the 76 boxes of gold into a waiting van.

The alarm was raised by one of the guards at 0830 GMT after the gang had left.

Scotland Yard Flying Squad chief Commander Frank Cater is leading the hunt for the thieves.

He said he believed they had inside information and were a "highly professional team". 

perimeter: the boundary line or the area immediately inside the boundary（周長）