LONDON — Days before the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games, the British government on Tuesday called up an extra 1,200 troops to help safeguard the event amid intensifying concerns over the security plan.
The decision, made by a cabinet committee led by Prime Minister David Cameron, brings to 18,200 the total number of military personnel involved in securing the Games after an embarrassing failure by a global security company, G4S, to provide the staff members it promised.
The government also tried to avert another potential crisis on Tuesday when it sought an injunction to prevent border security staff members at British airports from striking on Thursday, the day before the start of the Games.
The new contingent of troops had been readied last week when they were put on 48-hour standby, reduced from 72 hours.
“On the eve of the largest peacetime event ever staged in this country, ministers are clear that we should leave nothing to chance,” said Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state for culture, Olympics, media and sport, in a statement after the committee meeting in London. “The government continues to have every confidence that we will deliver a safe and secure Games.”
In his statement, Mr. Hunt said only, “Security staffing levels at venues have been kept under constant review.”
He added, “G4S numbers continue to rise significantly, and we have every expectation that will continue to be the case.”
Government officials declined to elaborate beyond the statement or explain what had prompted the decision to authorize the additional deployment.
Senior ministers, military and police commanders and other officials are meeting daily to monitor the security and transportation situation in London, where the Olympics are expected to put a huge strain on roads and public transportation networks. Ministers are also reviewing contingency plans put in place to deal with the effect of a strike planned for Thursday, the day before the start of the Games, involving border agency staff members.
This month the chief executive of G4S, Nick Buckles, acknowledged in a parliamentary committee hearing that his company’s failure to secure a guaranteed security staff of 10,400 had constituted a “humiliating shambles.”
Paul Deighton, chief executive of London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, said the reason for the latest deployment was to “absolutely de-risk any aspect of the operation,” according to ITV News.
Mr. Deighton said the move was not a sign that G4S was having any further problems supplying staff members. But, he added, “you can’t be absolutely certain of anything with a temporary work force. Therefore, we want to substitute a temporary work force with a permanent, reliable work force that we get with the military.”
In addition to the military, the police in at least eight regions have said they will provide officers to make up the shortfall.
G4S has said it will pay for the costs incurred by the military and the police because of the absence of its personnel, but the company has not agreed to forgo payment for the contract.
There was also a personnel shortage possible at British airports on Thursday, the day members of the Public and Commercial Services Union had voted to stage a 24-hour strike over pay and job losses.
The Home Office said Tuesday that it would go to court to try to stop the strike, citing procedural errors in the strike ballot as the grounds for their legal complaint, Reuters reported. 
The union said it would “robustly defend any legal challenge” to the planned strike. “Our preference is to resolve these by negotiation, and we would hope ministers would rather sit down and talk to us, instead of going to the courts,”  the union said in a statement.
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