Sir Michael Peat's report into the scandals that rocked Prince Charles' royal household last year is due out later this week.

Even before it is published, the report - into allegations of gay rape, selling unwanted gifts and the conduct of Charles' household over the collapse of the Paul Burrell trial - is being dismissed as a whitewash by many.

Even the monarchist Daily Mail questions why Charles kept the inquiry internal when many felt he should have ordered it to be external. So why did Charles order an internal report only and how damaging will the allegations of a cover-up be to his reputation and his chances of one day being king?

Sally Hutchinson, 50, mum of four and chief officer of Age Concern York

"Unless he has a good clean-out of his dirty linen it is never going to go away. There will always be somebody saying 'that was never handled properly, that was always kept under wraps'. The best way is to get it all out in the open and have a proper external inquiry. He was wrong not to do that straight away.

There may be more stuff to come out. I imagine it is very embarrassing for them to be found out for being so secretive. The gifts, for example: if they have got the place full of gifts they could auction them for charity, or do something useful with them. There are ways you could handle these things. He could give them to the Age Concern shops and we would look after them for him!

The whole business about the way they closed ranks shows they still don't know how to relate to the population, and cope with the fact that people actually have a lot more to say these days.

Charles will become king, and when he is, many these indiscretions will be forgotten. The population always rise to that kind of occasion. But the Royal family needs to be modernised, more open. Diana's popularity was enormous. She had her indiscretions, but because she was more open, people said she was a normal human being. We all make mistakes. When you pretend you don't make mistakes, it makes you very vulnerable."

Dorothy Dawson, 63, Tory Party member, keen public speaker and chair of York Conservative Supper Club

"There should be an open report, one requested by Charles, carried out by a separate body. It was a mistake not to have done that in the first place. Charles was not given very good advice.

There is a lot going wrong with royalty at the moment. All of us, now we're on the brink of war, are keen for stability. We never could get that with the government, because governments come and go. In the past we would very much look to royalty to give us some form of stability.

I'm a supporter of the monarchy. I think in the past the Queen Mother and the Queen have served us well. They have been doing a job that very few people would want to be doing for as long as they have been doing it.

I think people will still believe in the monarchy. We perhaps expect too much of our leaders and royal family. At the end of the day we are all people and we do make mistakes.

But I don't know whether Charles should be the next king. Probably it should be passed straight on to William. There is nothing against William. Charles is tainted a little bit because of his marriage. People say he is partly to blame for the marriage going wrong. He started the infidelity. Perhaps he should have put his position first and his own interests second."

Updated: 08:54 Tuesday, March 11, 2003