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London 2012 Given Security Warning
- 30 December 2008
- Security planning for the London Olympics is being undermined by cost-cutting and delays at the Home Office according to Ghaffur, the former Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, who until the autumn was responsible for delivering security for the 2012 Games.
Writing exclusively for Telegraph Sport, Ghaffur warns that delays in producing a security master plan for the Games mean time is running short to ensure that London 2012 is effectively policed.
He also claims that the £600 million budget set aside for security is inadequate, meaning the Government will be forced to "throw money" at the problem as the Games draw closer.
Ghaffur left the Met earlier this year after settling a racial discrimination case he brought against former Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. He had been working on the Olympic security plan for two years, but his dispute with the Commissioner saw responsibility for the project being handed to the Home Office.
Having indicated that a security plan would be published in September, the Home Office are now promising to make their plans public in January at the earliest.
Ghaffur's comments follow concerns raised by former Home Office minister John Patten, who claimed last week that political in-fighting threatened to undermine police and intelligence agency efforts to secure the Games.
"In a world of international terrorist threats, chemical and biological weaponry and electronic sabotage, London needs a robust and effective security plan in place to protect the city and those attending the 2012 Games," Ghaffur writes. "From what I have seen and heard since I left the force I am concerned that there will be no time to deliver this ambition."
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