Other additional articles on security issue:
The Times:
Police protection for Prince Harry ‘would set precedent for private citizens’
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Prince Harry cannot just buy police protection, say former guards
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The Telegraph
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The Times:
Police protection for Prince Harry ‘would set precedent for private citizens’
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Simon Morgan, a former royal protection officer who is now a director of Trojan Consultancy security firm, said the decision would have been made by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RaVEC). It takes advice from the Home Office, Foreign Office, police and the security services.
“This is nothing that the royal family can influence,” Morgan said. “It’s nothing that the Metropolitan Police can influence. If you went down a route of him paying for it, that sets a precedent. Who then becomes the employer? For example, why couldn’t Bill Gates get official projection if he offers to pay?”
Dai Davies, former division head of royal protection command, said Harry was in a unique situation. “I’ve studied the history of attacks on the royal family going back to George III and I’ve never come across anything like this. It’s unprecedented for a member of the royal family to threaten to sue the government for failing to provide security.”
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The cost of guarding Harry in Britain would be about £10,000 a day, a former royal protection officer has said (Jack Malvern writes). In the private sector a protection officer for one costs £1,200 a day, with an additional £1,500 if they need a vehicle and driver and a further £1,600 for overnight protection.
A backup car and an advance party each add £2,770 to the bill. If Harry is with his family, costs multiply.
Simon Morgan, of Trojan Security, said police security would have similar costs. “Mark Zuckerberg’s bill is $30 million a year,” he said.
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Prince Harry cannot just buy police protection, say former guards
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Dai Davies, who was an operational unit commander for royal protection from 1995, said police services were not for sale. He told Good Morning Britain that members of the royal family received protection only if the security agencies considered them to be at risk.
“Princess Anne doesn’t get full-time protection we’re told now and yet in 1974 she was nearly kidnapped and/or murdered,” Davies said. “There has never been a precedent where somebody pays for their security in this country. If it’s required, it will be provided.”
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A royal protection officer who guarded Diana, Princess of Wales, agreed that police protection could not simply be bought. Ken Wharfe, who was a close protection officer for Harry’s mother from 1987 to 1993, said that he was showing “outrageous cheek” in seeking a judicial review.
“If he is granted [royal protection], for which he has magnanimously offered to pay, every visiting Hollywood star and wealthy celebrity may as well expect the same privileges,” Wharfe wrote in the Daily Mail.
“He cannot claim he was not told. For him now to be threatening legal action against the government, and by extension against the Queen herself, is unprecedented for any royal, even one who has abdicated his official duties.”
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The Telegraph
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Lawyers for the Duke filed a “pre-action protocol” that will - should the courts grant it - result in a judicial review. Such reviews can typically cost £100,000.
Lawyers for the Duke believe the refusal to give him protection has been unreasonable, opaque and inconsistent. They also insist he faces a greater threat in the UK than the US and that vital security information is not being shared with his private security team.
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