Delay in security planning for the 2012 Games increases the risk of time delays and cost overruns, it is claimed.
A progress report by the National Audit Office admits that limited progress was made during 2007 ‘in developing an overall costed programme’. The June report spaks of the Home Office by June 2008 having ‘high-level costed options on the scope of the security programme’, and aiming for a ‘fully costed programme plan’ by the end of 2008 within a £600m funding limit. Delays could be costly, and not only in money terms. The report warns that delays ‘could impact on taking forward security activities that require an early start, and impact on other parts of the London 2012 programme. For example, no decision has been made about the requirement for a National Olympic Co-ordination Centre to accommodate strategic command and intelligence centre for Games security operations’. Such a command centre might be a temporary building, the report adds.
Procurement of the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) venue and infrastructure construction projects should have been informed by the wider security programme plan, the NAO says. “In the absence of such a plan, however, security advisers have been closely involved in the authority ’s development of the venue and infrastructure specifications,” the report says. The ODA, to keep the construction programme on track, has adopted what the report coyly terms a ‘pragmatic approach’ and ‘proceeded with the best security information available while work on the wider security programme plan continues.”
The Olympic Delivery Authority is responsible for security on the Olympic Park site during construction and the programme baseline budget includes £354 million for this project. During the course of 2008 the Olympic Project Review Group has approved five Authority business cases for aspects of physical security on the Olympic Park including, for example, access control which will involve turnstiles, proximity access and swipe cards for entry to the park during construction. All the site security projects have to date been approved by the Olympic Security Directorate.
In the overall budget was more than £2200m of what was termed ‘unallocated programme contingency’. Of that, £238 million has been set aside for policing and wider security.
As the document goes on to say, threats include terrorist attack, fraud, corruption and increased illegal immigration. At an operational level, there are some 24 organisations involved in the security programme, ‘covering aspects such as policing, other emergency services, transport, immigration, organised crime and border control’. Policing and security are the responsibility of the Home Office, and are overseen by a Cabinet Office committee, chaired by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith. That is distinct from the responsibilities of the Olympic Delivery Authority for site security on the Olympic Park during construction.
Under revised arrangements dating from April 2008, ‘the Home Office has taken on responsibility for developing the overall costed safety and security plan’ (cooperational planning for the security programme was previously headed by an Olympic Security Co-oordinator, an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police). The Home Office is supported by the Olympic Security Directorate, based in the Metropolitan Police, ‘which brings together the various departments and agencies’ involved in safety, security and resilience.
Building on the main stadium began in May; the aim is to be ready by June 2011, to run test events. Building of other arenas and the media centre will begin in 2009. To download the full 56-page report, visit the NAO website:
