Office of the Duke of York calls in PwC consultants

The office of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, who is UK's special representative for international trade and investment, has decided to call in consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to gauge how effectively the office works and how to improve its operations.

At this stage, the Duke is only saying his office is responding to the PwC report by making some organisational changes, but it is uncertain whether the results will be published because the office is financed directly by the Queen rather than the civil list and she repays the state money allocated to the Duke, The Times reports.

'You won't see a great deal of difference in terms of the swan's neck. It is the legs underneath and how they operate. You might have found that one leg was working very, very hard and the other leg was just doing one pull. So we have been trying to remake the body of the organisation, to make the legs work in unison,' the Duke said in a statement.

His supporters say that, far from being junkets, the Duke's foreign visits are an important part of developing relationships with other countries and businesses to promote investment in Britain.

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