Dai Davies, the former head of royal protection, claimed that Prince Andrew demanded 24/7 security for his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie from birth at taxpayers' expense. According to multiple reports, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie had round-the-clock security for 23 and 21 years respectively. The security for Andrew's daughters is thought to have cost the Met Police, Surrey Police and Thames Valley Police hundreds of millions of pounds.
This security was controversially revoked in 2011 after Princess Eugenie's gap year racked up a taxpayer bill of more than £100,000. During that gap year, Princess Eugenie was accompanied by police bodyguards while traveling to India, the US, South Africa and Thailand. Dai Davies personally queried the decision to approve the security after Andrew's demand.
No one wanted to question the Queen.
It was Prince Charles who stepped in to control the spending on security for Andrew's daughters. Prince Andrew was angry about the security being revoked and wrote a note to the Queen, wanting his daughters to be considered as proper royals. The Yorks as a family have cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions in police protection, according to Dai Davies.
British taxpayers have funded security for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Sarah Ferguson, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to the tune of between £100 million and £150 million, according to Dai Davies. Andrew's elder sister, Princess Anne, did not make a similar request for security for her two children, Peter and Zara, according to Dai Davies. The true amount of security costs for Andrew's family could be even higher than £100-150 million, according to Dai Davies.
It was an example of how he has operated as a bully, supported by his mother, who chose to ignore the reports.
It remains unclear how exactly the cost of hundreds of millions of pounds for security was calculated, and what detailed breakdowns exist. Additionally, the Queen's specific response or guidance when Andrew contacted her about the security issue has not been publicly confirmed.