Do govt employee find out early about the Queen’s death?

[Ginandpink]

My brother said they were told early, doesn’t make sense?

That's where the funeral will be rehearsed??

5.30 for a family member in a ceremonial role only told me after the official announcement. He wasn't told "officially" just a nod as far as I'm aware. He will be involved in the st Giles service.

Really.....

Sorry, I must have dreamed reading the Operation Order surrounding protocol of her death.

There's a distinct order in who is told and when.

No, it’s always a man… “DH is in the army” or “My neighbour’s cousin’s husband…”

Police, maybe

No I wasn’t briefed, I logged off at 5.10pm, doubt anyone was told in my dept

How prescient of them!!!

No it isn't always a man. My DD works for the RAF and found out several minutes before it was announced on tv.

Well yeah that would have been accepting the resignation of BoJo - no one knew last week FFS.

That didn’t happen though did it

It was obvious something was seriously wrong the minute BBC one went to rolling news this afternoon, they were hardly going to get to 7pm, stand everyone down and put Eastenders on.

Obviously there’s a hierarchy in terms of who/which organisations know what to allow for plans to be put in place in this type of situation.

DH is a civil servant. He knew nothing about the Queen until he left work, odd as he works for a large organisation. Ithink it was deliberately kept from them, as he didn't even know the Queen had been taken ill.

DH knew shortly before as he works for one of the major press groups and was needed to do some work on the actual announcing side, but we’re talking maybe 15 mins beforehand.

I heard about 4:00 from someone who works in a ‘royal’ industry, there have been countless rumours before, but this is the first time she had said something to me.
They also were told about Philips death about half an hour before it was announced.
According to her, the original announcement. Was supposed to be earlier but was delayed, presumably so the family could gather.

There’s so much that needs to happen, so hardly surprising that many people are told beforehand if they are in a role where they need to know.

Its surely common in every industry for staff to be made aware of things before official press releases

Senior government comms people all cleared their diaries at around lunchtime today - cancelling meeting and events for the coming week.

Definitely, my friends daughter works at a Royal palace and they were made aware shortly after her death.

Yep, it was announced to friend in local government here, about 4.30.

I would imagine that there are several protocols in place that would have been actived or put on standby just in case when the first announcement was made. Let's be honest here, the Palace wouldn't have made that announcement if they didn't think she was on death's door.

But I don't think anyone beyond the actual royal family, PM and need to knows would've been told before the official announcement.

Yes, I would guess the similar. I think that the news of the 'concern for her health' breaking may actually have been the time of her death.

But I don't think anyone beyond the actual royal family, PM and need to knows would've been told before the official announcement.

Yep my friend found out before the official announcement.

Huw Edwards - BBC Newsreader was wearing a black tie, when announcing the Queen was unwell and family were arriving at Balmoral. This was a number of hours before he reported later she had died!

The media like the BBC knew but were waiting for the official announcement from the Palace. They know the protocols, we knew at 4.20pm.

We started receiving emails reminding us of protocols mid afternoon today and began ensuring we had the flag ready etc but we didn’t actually know know until the formal announcement. That has happened once before when the queen was unwell but there were nuances that made this feel less of a “just in case” scenario. Regionally it’s actually announced by the local resilience forums and they declared it ages after the palace so we’d started actioning some elements like the flag at half mast but all announcements on council websites had to wait for LRF.

Having been involved in an announcement regarding the death of a senior politician… some core people received a warning it was imminent the night before the death and then we received the next update around 2/3 hours pre national news announcement. Again a core group, but slightly wider.

It would be very different in terms of ‘need to know’ for the queen, and I have no inside knowledge but I’d imagine it’s similar.