3,500 more troops assigned to Olympics as security firm struggles

With the Olympics looming, the United Kingdom is prepping for its largest ever peacetime security operation and now it's been revealed that an...

00:00 12 July 2012

 

With the Olympics looming, the United Kingdom is prepping for its largest ever peacetime security operation and now it's been revealed that an extra 3,500 will be deployed during the games. 

 

This brings the rough total to around 17,000 who are involved in one form or another with the Olympics, of which 11,000 are tasked with security details. 

 

Security for the games was previously handed out to a company called G4S who signed an exclusive contract, but they've had problems filling some of the gaps which has resulted in the government giving the go-ahead for a military boost. 

 

G4S is being paid £300m supply 10,000 trained guards for the 2012 Games, but many reports have suggested that they haven't been able to give reassurances that their initital number will be filled in time. 

 

Security minister James Brokenshire told BBC Radio: "We've been challenging them, asking the questions, really going down and kicking the tyres and doing all those sorts of things and they have been very robust about the fact that they would deliver on the contract. It has only been in these last few weeks that these issues have emerged."

 

G4S released a statement which reflected that 4,000 staff were already deployed across 100 venues and over 9,000 were still being either trained, accredited or vetted. They did admit, however, that "we have encountered some delays in progressing applicants through the final stages but we are working extremely hard to process these as swiftly as possible."

 

The Home Office also released an official statement: In a statement, the Home Office said: "We have agreed to offer help to G4S by revising the level of military support.

 

"The government is committing £553m for venue security and we remain confident that we will deliver within budget."

 

Given that London's holding of the 2012 Olympics has been known for since July 6th 2005, the news comes as a shock that security measures haven't been finalised with mere weeks left to go. 

 

The Olympic Games are set to run from July 27th to August 12th 2012.