£19m injection for Olympic security

12 April 2012

Ministers have approved a £19 million injection to bolster security improvements at Olympic Park venues, the Government has confirmed.

The money, released in the last three months from the Funders Contingency, is to make the venues more blast resilient, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said.

The Funders Contingency is used to cover risks outside of the control of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) which is in charge of Olympic build and infrastructure. Decisions on resilience measures are being made with the latest advice of the security services before allocating funding.

In its quarterly economic report on the budget for the £9.325 billion Olympic project, the DCMS said: "£19 million of contingency has been released to enhance security resilience to the permanent venues.

"These are predominantly hardening modifications to existing structures. The forecast for security has not increased as this cost was included in the anticipated final cost in the previous report."

The credit crunch has forced organisers to dip into the contingency of which of £1.272 billion remains from the £1.972 billion available.

It was also confirmed that £3 million of the original budget for the basketball arena has been released back to the contingency as it has not been needed.

Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said: "On the eve of our three years to go celebrations the Olympic project remains on time and on budget. The overall funding package for the Games remains the same and the anticipated final cost of the ODA budget is the same as it was at the end of March 2009 - £7.234 billion."

Taxpayers have been forced to rescue the £1 billion athletes' village after the collapse of a private-finance deal. It amounts to a nationalisation of the 2012 construction project. In May ministers agreed the injection of £324 million takes public investment in the scheme to £650 million.

The £9.325 billion public sector funding package for the Games includes £6.1 billion for the ODA budget. There is £2 billion contingency and £1.2 billion for non-ODA activities such as wider security and support for elite and community sport.

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