Parts of Prince Harry’s claim against the Home Office will be kept secret – as a judge criticised the Duke of Sussex’s legal team for an “entirely unacceptable” breach of court rules.

Harry is challenging the department’s decision, made in February 2020, to prevent him from paying for police protection for himself and his family during a visit to the UK.

The duke wants to bring his son Archie and nine-month-old baby daughter Lilibet to visit from the US, but fears they will be “unable to return to his home” because it is too dangerous, a representative said.

Security concerns if information is released

He offered to fund the security himself, rather than ask taxpayers to foot the bill after he stepped down as a senior member of the Royal Family.

Harry is now arguing his private protection team in the US does not have access to UK intelligence information which is needed to keep his wife and children safe.

After a preliminary hearing last month, a judge allowed for some documents to be withheld or redacted – including a confidential witness statement made by the duke.

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The judge said: “Some of the information relied on concerns security arrangements put in place either for the claimant or for other public figures in the United Kingdom. For obvious reasons information on such matters usually remains confidential.”

Mr Justice Swift said that some his reasoning for the decision would have to remain confidential as well

He said current and future security arrangements would be put at risk if some of the information was shared with the public.

“Information about these matters would self-evidently be of interest to anyone wishing to harm a person within the scope of the security arrangements and would assist them to piece together previous practice with a view to anticipating present or future security provision,” he said.

Prince Harry’s legal team slammed

Mr Justice Swift later criticised Prince Harry’s legal team for making the ruling public before it was due to be officially published.

Drafts of High Court judgments are typically provided to lawyers before their publication.

Shaheed Fatima QC, who represents Prince Harry, said she and her team had not been sure if emailing the ruling to someone who was not a lawyer last week would break the rules.

She reported it to the judge yesterday – but Mr Justice Swift questioned why she hadn’t done so earlier and slammed the “entirely unacceptable” move that was a “clear breach” of court rules.

“It is also unacceptable that you come without an apology to the court,” he said.

Ms Fatima said she took full responsibility and then apologised “for the fact that I didn’t think fully before the emails were sent”.

The Home Office’s lawyer previously told the court that the duke’s offer of private funding was “irrelevant”.

Robert Palmer QC said “personal protective security by the police is not available on a privately financed basis” and the government “does not make decisions on the provision of such security on the basis that any financial contribution could be sought or obtained to pay for it”.

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