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The military has been asked to provide up to 3,500 extra troops to guard the London Olympics, amid concerns that private security firm G4S will be unable to deliver the number of staff it promised.
Ministers have been forced into the last-ditch move only a fortnight before the Games because they are concerned that G4S cannot guarantee it will be able to supply the 13,700 guards it was contracted to deliver.
One Whitehall insider accused the Home Office of "sticking its head in the sand" over the need to deploy extra military personnel.
"This has been an accident waiting to happen. The Home Office has waited to make a decision on this because G4S has been saying it is all in hand. But we've run out of time."
The home secretary, Theresa May, has been pressing G4S to provide assurances over its commitments, but patience in Whitehall ran out last weekend and talks began over whether the Ministry of Defence could fill the gap.
"The army will provide an insurance policy," said a Whitehall source. The armed forces are already providing up to 13,500 personnel for the Games – split between the venues and back-up for police. Under the contingency plans, this could reach 16,500 – 7,000 more than are being deployed in Afghanistan.
The MoD has been seeking guarantees that any soldiers drafted in at the last moment will be properly compensated for cancelled leave.
A defence source said that the army units that may be required had been identified and put at a state of shortened readiness.
They will be deployed incrementally, as needed, and logistical and training hubs were already being set up to co-ordinate them.
"This is not about the security of the Olympics being in peril," said the source. "Nobody would let that happen. The military has been asked to help, so of course the military will help. I think the general public will be relieved to see members of the British armed forces at the venues providing security. Quite a lot needs to be done, this is a big issue for us, but we can do it."
The issue of venue security has been the most contentious for organisers and the government in the runup to the Olympics, after the London organising committee (Locog) admitted in December it had wildly underestimated the number of staff required to deliver security at 34 Olympic venues in London and around the country.
The figure required more than doubled from 10,000 to 23,700 and the budget went up from £282m to £553m. All security costs for the Games are met from the £9.3bn government funding package provided from public funds, as opposed to Locog's £2bn operating budget.
The Home Office permanent secretary, Dame Helen Ghosh, has admitted that Locog's original "best estimate" of 10,000 security staff within venues had been a "finger in the air" exercise.
Another source on the London 2012 board has previously described the security operation as a "blind spot" in Locog's planning for the Games.
It will spark fresh questions over the extent to which the Games will appear overly reliant on the armed forces – last week it was confirmed that surface-to-air missiles would be located at six sites around the capital, despite protests from residents and some MPs.
The navy's biggest warship, HMS Ocean, will be stationed in the Thames and four Typhoon fighter jets will be on standby at RAF Northolt in Middlesex. Armed Puma helicopters will also be on standby.
The London 2012 chairman, Lord Coe, has insisted that London will not feel like a "siege city" during the Games and Chris Allison, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner and national Olympic security co-ordinator, has insisted it will be a "blue Games".
Organisers have insisted that 8.8 million ticketholders will be reassured rather than panicked by the sight of military personnel, citing the example of Wimbledon. But such large numbers of military personnel have never been mobilised in the UK during peacetime.
Organisers believe G4S needs at least 19,000 security guards to fulfil its £284m contract, which requires 10,400 licenced guards and 3,300 students. The extra guards are needed as a buffer when staff fail to turn up or fail security screening. G4S were also due to manage the 7,500 military personnel and 2,500 volunteers. The 3,500 extra troops may not all be required but the government is keen to have them in place in case G4S is unable to deliver.
The government is believed to have agreed to a "just in time" approach to training the guards in a bid to avoid costs spiralling further. In addition to £553m security budget, a further £600m has been set aside for the police operation, although the Home Office has said it should be able to deliver for £475m.
G4S said it had 4,000 staff in venues and more than 20,000 in training. A spokesman for G4S said that issues over "scheduling and deployment" were being dealt with.
"Our programme to train and deploy our security workforce for the 2012 Games is continuing and has stepped up in the past few weeks," said the spokesman. "Issues we have faced over scheduling and deployment are being worked out and we are continuing to work hard to get a robust workforce in place for the start of the Games."
Read the background to the story:
'Our people didn't sign up for Queen and country to check bags'
Philip Hammond isn't everyone's cup of tea at the Ministry of Defence, but he's no pushover, and he has accounted for every penny in the over-stretched military budget.
His calculations didn't include offering even more troops for the security of the Olympics, and being a stickler for detail, the defence secretary has been beavering around Whitehall in recent days making plain he has no intention of picking up the bill.
That may be the least of the MoD's worries as it draws up yet more plans to cancel leave and deploy up to 3,500 extra troops, some of whom may have only recently returned from Afghanistan.
None of which will do military morale much good, coming just a week after Hammond announced a raft of defence reforms that will see 20,000 posts lost from the army in the next three years.
Anger within the armed forces at the manner in which the MoD has been called to the rescue has been replaced by weary resignation after a year in which the overall number of military personnel needed for Olympics duty has ballooned.
The situation has been caused by a huge miscalculation by the Olympic organisers, Locog, followed by what appears to have been over-optimistic recruitment and training assessments by the security firm G4S.
Locog first realised it had a major problem last summer, when its predictions for the number of staff needed at the Olympic venues began to unravel.
It had thought it would need 10,000 people to undertake routine security checks, but when organisers started doing role-playing exercises at some of the new stadia, they began to appreciate this was a woeful underestimate.
More than twice that number would be required. The Metropolitan police could not help because its staff were already accounted for. (Senior officers say they had been warning Locog for months it had got its sums wrong).
And with the Olympic budget set, there was a reluctance to pay G4S to make up the shortfall. As ministers started to panic during the Cabinet Office briefings – known as Cobra – all eyes fell on the MoD.
The military had already committed a number of ships, aircraft and ceremonial personnel to the Games, but it had not bargained for – and was initially resistant to providing – huge numbers of troops at the venues.
"The military will do what they are told, but I don't think any of our people signed up for Queen and country to check bags," said one senior army officer.
Though the problem was identified a year ago, the haggling over who would do what and when, and who would pay, didn't end until December last year, shortly after posters began to appear at the MoD's Whitehall headquarters advising staff to take out comprehensive holiday and travel insurance for the summer.
Days before Christmas the government announced that up to 13,500 military personnel would be deployed at the Olympics, including 7,500 doing security checks at the busiest times during the Games.
More than 2,000 reserves were called up in the spring to help make up the numbers.
Even with that, Locog and the Home Office were relying on G4S to provide a total of 10,400 licensed security guards – five times more than had originally been envisaged. The contract is reported to be worth £284m.
Last autumn, G4S made it clear it could only recruit substantial numbers if it was given enough time. With time now running perilously short, it seems it is struggling to meet the commitment.
Last weekend, only half the guards needed to guarantee fully staffed patrols of the entrances to venues and undertake other security duties were ready to start work.
G4S admitted it had been having "some challenges on workforce scheduling", but insisted it could resolve them.
Earlier this week it was reported that it still needed to train and accredit as many as 9,000 guards and was calling in retired police officers to fill vacant roles.
On Wednesday, G4S declined to give a specific figure, saying the picture was constantly changing. A spokesman added that it remained confident it would meet its commitment by the start of the Games.
In Whitehall, though, patience is running thin.
With the Games only a fortnight away, the home secretary, Theresa May, has been co-ordinating talks about how best to provide cover. Inevitably, she turned to her cabinet colleague, the defence secretary.
Hammond has been involved in many of the discussions, and though it would be inconceivable for the military to turn down such a request, he has made it clear it will cause avoidable inconvenience, which must be properly compensated.
The MoD will not grumble in public. Earlier this year, General Sir Nick Parker, commander of land forces, said he was unconcerned that the military was required to help the Olympics at short notice.
"I am entirely comfortable with the warning time. Short notice, rapid reaction, flexibility is what we do. From my perspective, 12 hours to grab your kit and go is short notice – this is not. And let me reiterate that the feeling amongst military personnel about their involvement in the Olympics will be excitement, pride and a determination to do a good job."
Parker did not know then how prophetic those words would be. With only days to go to the biggest sporting event ever held in the UK, the troops are on standby again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012...ments-olympics
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