The Scottish Government

Cost of Policing the G8 Summit

The Scottish Executive is responsible for the bulk of the cost of policing the recent G8 Summit at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, and associated events. The total policing cost was £71.976m. This includes spending on areas such as mutual aid, police officer accommodation, transport, catering and other aspects of the operation. A breakdown of the total cost, with further details, is included below.

The UK Government has agreed to provide £20m towards meeting this cost. The Scottish Executive will cover the remaining £51.976m. This is only right given that law and order and policing are issues devolved to the Scottish Administration.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was responsible for the organisational costs associated with hosting the G8 Summit. This included the cost of hiring the Gleneagles Hotel itself, transporting delegates, providing media facilities and other items. More detail on organisational costs can be found on the FCO website at www.fco.gov.uk

Breakdown of costs

Planning costs: £12.251m

The planning process for the policing operation began 18 months before the Summit itself and at it's peak involved over 250 officers and members of staff drawn from forces across Scotland and the UK. A great deal of very detailed preparatory work had to be undertaken including extensive public order training for over 1000 officers, and careful evaluation of security options in order to ensure both effectiveness and value for money. Prudent investment in advance planning was one of the key factors in ensuring the successful delivery of such a large scale policing operation.

Mutual aid: £44.660m

Mutual aid was provided by police forces across the UK as a result of an agreement between the Chief Constable of Tayside Police and Chief Constables/Chief Officers of other forces for those forces to provide assistance during the G8 Summit. This was in recognition of the fact that policing an event of this magnitude was beyond the resources of Tayside Police alone.

Mutual aid is clearly the biggest single element of the total policing cost and comprises the additional staffing costs incurred by police forces - north and south of the border - who contributed to the operation.

£23.165m of the total went to Scottish police forces (including the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency) with English and Welsh forces (including the British Transport Police) receiving £21.495m.

IT and office equipment: £1.151m

These costs were incurred in setting up and furnishing command centres and other office space for use in the co-ordination of the policing operation. Items purchased included computers, software, telephones, desks and other office furniture and equipment.

Staff accommodation: £3.008m

The sheer scale of the policing operation meant that accommodation had to be provided for thousands of police officers, support staff and representatives of other agencies involved in the policing operation who were based in Scotland during the period of the Summit. Nearly 67,000 bed nights were contracted from 69 different hotels, guest houses and other accommodation providers.

Transport/mobilisation provision: £3.369m

Given the scale of this operation - the largest of its kind ever to be staged in the UK - significant transport resources were required to move police officers to, from and between their places of duty quickly and effectively. £1.1m of the total figure was spent on coach hire, with another £0.9m covering the costs of other vehicles hired or purchased, fuel and maintenance. The remaining £1.4m relates to the mobilisation costs incurred in transporting officers based in England and Wales and other parts of Scotland to G8 related locations. Every vehicle which was purchased has since been resold to help reduce the final cost. A total of 149 vans and cars were purchased at a net cost of £120,000 (purchases of £477,000 less £357,000 recouped through sales).

Catering for the event: £1.219m

Additional catering facilities had to be established at staging posts and other places of duty to ensure that officers were properly fed and refreshed while working shifts, often lasting up to sixteen hours. These facilities were supplied by a mix of providers including Local Authorities and the Metropolitan Police. At peak over 15,000 meals per day were provided for officers on duty.

Air support: £0.437m

Two helicopters were hired to provide additional air support for the operation. One helicopter was deployed over the Summit venue in Perthshire while the other provided extra cover for the central belt, where most related events took place. Associated costs included crew, fuel and landing charges. The total cost of helicopter hire was £395,000. A blimp was also deployed over the Summit venue at a cost of £42,000.

Insurance: £0.499m

We have always been clear that local residents and business should not have had to incur additional insurance risk as a result of the G8 Summit. The Association of British Insurers gave a firm commitment that insurers would not increase their premiums. The police faced a different situation however. Police officers, vehicles and equipment served in the front line at major demonstrations and several public order situations. It was prudent to secure additional insurance cover to ensure that claims as a result of possible injury or damage could be met.

Gleneagles perimeter security: £0.882m

A 5.5 mile external perimeter - made up of 11,000 fence panels - was established around the Summit venue to restrict access to the site. An internal roadway was also constructed to facilitate ease of movement around the perimeter, along with a number of watchtowers and 30 CCTV cameras (some with thermal imaging capability).

Temporary structures: £0.755m

A series of temporary structures were hired and erected at Staging Posts and the Summit venue itself. These were used to house temporary command centres as well as catering briefing and toilet facilities for officers on duty.

Private security: £0.477m

This covered the provision of 159 private security staff to carry out certain support functions and specialist security access duties (such as bag scanning and other airport style duties) at secure venues. The use of private contractors with expertise in these areas for such tasks was cost-effective and ensured that police officers could be released for essential frontline duties.

Staging posts: £0.168m

To ensure that police resources could be quickly deployed to where they were needed, 3 staging posts were set up at Ingliston, Stirling and Glasgow in addition to the command centres at Gleneagles, Prestwick and South Perthshire (Blackford). These provided meeting, briefing and catering facilities for officers. Existing buildings were used wherever possible - local primary schools for example, who received payment for use of their facilities.

Equipment: £1.197m

Police officers from around the UK brought their own equipment with them to Scotland at no additional cost. This included both ordinary frontline police officers and specialist units such as firearms officers and public order teams. Some additional equipment was however required to police an event of this magnitude. This included mobile CCTV units, Vetting and Validation equipment (for passes etc.), asset tracking (bar code) equipment, CS spray, secure storage boxes, torches, and search and seal equipment.

Airwave: £0.367m

Airwave is a national, digital mobile radio communications service currently in the process of being rolled out to police forces across the UK, including in Scotland. The benefits of the system include greater clarity of voice communications, improved security and an emergency button to summon urgent assistance. During G8, enhanced network coverage was provided by the service provider - O2 - to ensure that all officers taking part in the policing operation had full access to the network.

Prestwick expenses: £0.411m

Prestwick International Airport in Ayrshire was the main point of arrival and departure for the world leaders and their support staff. A number of costs were incurred as a result of various aspects of the security operation in and around the airport, including an upgrade to the security fence around the site at a cost of £299,000 and the provision of extra CCTV cover at a cost of £93,000. Other minor upgrades and miscellaneous costs came to £19,000.

Miscellaneous: £1.125m

This includes traffic management costs, the setting up a remote vehicle search site, minor site modifications at staging post locations, stationary and office supplies, maps and other miscellaneous costs.

Scottish Executive Justice Department

December 2005