Buckingham Palace was handed emails six years ago that would have shown that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was sharing confidential government information while a trade envoy, according to court documents.

It has emerged that an archive of 30,000 emails, containing information about the former prince's controversial financial dealings, was given to the Lord Chamberlain, the most senior officer in the Royal Household, in 2020.

The emails had been taken from a personal business contact of the former Prince Andrew.

When asked about what happened to the emails, Buckingham Palace said: “Since there is an ongoing police enquiry concerning Mr Mountbatten-Windsor, it is not possible to provide any comment on these matters.”

Last week, Thames Valley Police issued a fresh appeal for people to come forward with information, following Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

But a search of court documents has revealed that a large cache of emails relating to Mountbatten-Windsor's finances had already been sent to Palace officials, years before the current inquiries began.

The emails had been the subject of a legal dispute and documents from a High Court judgment in April 2021 show that a "copy of the archive" had been provided for the "Lord Chamberlain in May 2020".

In June 2022, a subsequent High Court ruling refers to an email, dated 10 July 2020, saying the emails had been "delivered to Buckingham Palace".

This was after the then Duke of York had stepped down as a working royal, in the wake of his BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019.

The contents of the archive, with emails up to June 2013, are not fully known, but there have been glimpses of how relevant they could be.