Olympics (Security) Debate

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Department: Home Office

Olympics (Security)

Meg Hillier Excerpts
Thursday 12th July 2012

(12 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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I assure my hon. Friend that discussions are taking place among Departments about the funding. The funding will not reside with the MOD. The matter of penalties is one between LOCOG and G4S, but the Government will discuss it with them. As he rightly says, if the required numbers have not been delivered, the financial penalty proceeds should revert to the Government to make extra money available.

Meg Hillier Portrait Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
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I share the concerns of my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Jim Fitzpatrick) about the number of people, including in my constituency, who would have loved to have had one of the 12,000 jobs that are now going not to security staff but to the armed forces.

The Home Secretary has been in her post for two years and two months. In that time she has had three security Ministers, and Olympic security needs have more than doubled. The Home Office knew that there was a problem in May 2010. When did she know there was a problem, and why did not she or one of her three security Ministers ask LOCOG more detailed questions about its poor forward planning?

Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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If I may just correct the hon. Lady on one fact: there have not been three security Ministers over the past two years and two months.