The London 2012 Olympic Games will be the biggest security challenge for Britain since World War Two, said Reuters report. And costs to secure the Games have recently increased by $23 million, the report noted.

 

Security Minister Alan West said Britain's preparations for 2012 were in "good shape," but came at a time of increased financial constraint because of the global banking crisis. "We are not complacent ... we do not underestimate the scale of the Olympic challenge," he said in the report. The Games are expected to attract 500,000 spectators a day and thousands of athletes and officials at about 30 venues nationwide.

 

 

West said that "The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games promise to be the greatest sporting event in UK history and quite possibly the greatest security challenge that the UK has faced since the Second World War." "We all need to understand that we are operating within significant financial constraints," he said.

 

 

West said in the report that while he and his team are operating with "significant financial restraints," security was being built into the Olympic venues at the design stage and that government bodies were working closely with police, transport and commercial partners. "We want to ensure that the public are reassured by our security plans," he said.

 

 

The report noted that the bill for security at the Olympic village has risen by $23 million, through extra costs for installing biometric testing and security screening for vehicles.