concern mounts over potential shortage of security guards

 8 July 2012

The private security company being paid nearly £300m to guard the London 2012 Olympics has yet to fully train or accredit thousands of security guards needed to protect the games from terrorist attack, it has emerged.

Ministers are anxious that with three weeks left until the opening ceremony, only half the guards needed to guarantee fully staffed patrols of the entrances to venues and carry out other security duties are ready to start work.

The home secretary, Theresa May, has stepped in amid growing concern that additional military personnel may be needed to make up the shortfall. It is understood May called senior G4S executives on Friday after the firm failed to supply enough staff for patrols last week at venues in the Olympic park in east London.

G4S, the private security contractor hired to supply 13,700 guards, still needs to train and accredit about 9,000 guards, according to a security source familiar with preparations. 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 will also manage 7,500 military personnel and 2,500 volunteers.

A spokesman for G4S confirmed it has 12,000 security guards available and is training a further 20,000 and will be doing so just days before the games open on 27 July.

"We have had some challenges on workforce scheduling this week, which we have discussed with Locog [the organising committee] and expect to resolve soon," said the spokesman. "At no time was security at the Olympic Park or other venues under threat."

G4S said the problems related to scheduling issues and getting people in the right place at the right time, but the firm said it was confident it would have sufficient trained and accredited guards by the time the games begin.

The company said it was always part of the contract that the security workforce would be in training until the last week of preparations. The Guardian understands that this was an issue that emerged during contract negotiations. It would have cost more to train the guards earlier. Under pressure not to further increase a security budget that has doubled to £533m, the government agreed to the "just-in-time" approach.

Home Office officials are now understood to be in constant contact with G4S at a high level to check on progress and have been demanding figures from the contractor twice a day.

Asked what contingency plans were being made to increase the number of military personnel available to fill any shortfall in G4S guards at Olympic venues, the Ministry of Defence said it would respond to any requests made by Locog.

"We attach the highest priority to safety and security," said a Locog spokeswoman. "We have the best brains in the security business working on this: Home Office, Metropolitan police, Ministry of Defence and the world's largest private security business. We believe that G4S will meet their numbers targets."

The Home Office confirmed on Sunday that a 24-year-old man is facing prosecution for breaching an anti-terror order after he was discovered to have passed through the Olympic park on a train on five occasions.

The man, known as CF in court documents, was subject to a terrorism prevention and investigation measures (Tpim) order banning him from using the London Overground rail route, which passes through the Olympic Park. He is suspected of having been involved with Somalia's al-Qaida-allied al-Shabaab rebels, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

The newspaper reported that papers in a high court case in which CF is challenging the order, reveal the home secretary believes "that were it not for the Tpim notice, CF would re-engage in terrorism-related activities, either in the UK or Somalia".

A government source said CF's use of the train that passes through the Olympic site "was not seen as a specific threat to the Olympic Park". They said they believed he was using the train as a shortcut. However, the source stressed that the trips on the train did constitute a breach of the counter-terror measures under which the 24-year-old was required to live, adding: "We take these threats seriously and Olympic security is one of our top priorities.".