Olympics 'more secure' with the military taking a greater role

The Olympics could be better off with the military playing a greater role, according to a senior Home Office official. Charles Farr, Head of Security and Counter-terrorism, played down concern about G4S and claimed it could ultimately make the Games more secure.

We've had a last-minute hitch but we've resolved the hitch and one could argue that we've come out of it stronger than we were when we went into it. We've got a really effective armed forces, military component to our venue security operation. G4S have faced a significant problem effectively scheduling, rostering, very large numbers of people to deploy to different venues at different times with different skills.

They have realised that not all of their workforce wanted to work at particular times, not all of them could work at particular times and not all of them had the right qualifications yet available. We first got an inkling that there was a problem with the scheduling system at the end of June. We were told that there was a possible shortfall, a temporary shortfall, and G4S were unable to put precise numbers on it. I asked them to do so and they couldn't.


Scottish police take G4S roles
