The rising expense of royal travel, increases in the Queen's Civil List - money used to fund the monarch's official duties - and extra maintenance work on royal palaces pushed up the overall total by £2 million.

Palace officials described the cost of the Monarchy to the taxpayer as 66p per person - less than the price of two pints of milk or a download for an MP3 player.

Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, said they had paid "continuous attention to obtaining value for money" where they could.

He said expenditure on royal travel increased as more overseas trips were undertaken and the building maintenance bill went up because work deferred in 2006-07 was carried out the following financial year.

Sir Alan stressed that if, over the next 10 years, they received no additional funds from the Department for Media Culture and Sports (DCMS) the cost of carrying out essential building work in 2018 would be an estimated £32 million at today's prices.

Sir Alan, whose £187,000 salary was revealed in the accounts, said the DCMS - which allocates a grant-in-aid for the upkeep of the royal buildings - had confirmed the money spent on palaces would remain at £15 million per annum for at least the next three years.

He added: "With no increase in funding for 12 years, the backlog in essential maintenance projects has continued to grow. In the absence of any increase of funding, the backlog of work is estimated at £32 million in today's money (if completed in 2018)."

The cost of keeping the Queen and members of her family excludes the bill for security provided by the police and Army, and the ceremonial duties performed by the Armed Forces.

The overall figure increased from £38 million to £40 million in the 12 months to March 31, a rise of 5.2%. The cost to the taxpayer is 66p per person - an increase of 4p on the previous financial year.