Royal security shake-up plan

Royal security shake-up plan sparks fears among team charged with keeping Queen and her family safe 

Scotland Yard has launched a major shake-up of protection for the Royal Family, the Evening Standard can reveal.

The decision has caused uproar among Royal and Diplomatic Protection Department officers charged with guarding the Queen and her family, including high-profile members Prince William, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
Prince Charles was sufficiently concerned on learning of the proposed changes that he raised them with senior Met officers at Assistant Commissioner level. But the measures were implemented regardless of his intervention. It means the Yard’s elite SO14 department has effectively been stripped of crucial back-up officer support.
The Met said the move is not about cost-cutting and insists there will be no impact on the safety of the royal family. But it will affect the security of all senior royals, including the Queen, Prince Philip, Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Now SO14 officers, who work very long hours, are threatening to operate under European Union 40-hour-week guidelines after some of their colleagues were bluntly informed by email that they were “no longer in post”. A claim that the move will cut costs comes amid heightened security concerns, particularly the threat of home-grown terrorists.