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Britain's most senior police officer says using soldiers to help keep the Olympics safe is "no bad thing". Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "It's not a bad solution to have about 11,000 fully trained soldiers under a military command from one of the best armies in the world.

It seems to me that the contingencies will be put in place and we'll all be kept safe... You always have to review these things if the situation changes. But with the guards, G4S are providing guards, the military, the police - taken together, it will be a well-run operation."

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The Home Secretary said the issues with G4S supplying enough guards initially looked like "teething problems".

Theresa May said: "They were consistently telling us, up until July 11, that they could produce the number of people required for the Olympic Games [they believed they identified] a temporary problem which was capable of resolution.

"We are constantly monitoring, constantly looking at how they are ensuring that safety and security for the Games so the people who come to these Olympic Games enjoy them."

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The Home Secretary says G4S gave assurances it would be able to overcome problems supplying Olympic security staff last month. During a tour of the Olympic Park's security centre Theresa May said:

In early July it was clear that there were some initial problems which G4S said they would resolve. And crucially it was not until July 11 that G4S finally said, 'Actually we can't resolve those initial problems, we won't be able to provide the personnel'... I haven't been at all selective [with the information]. What I've been is absolutely clear with the House of Commons and others about how these things developed.

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G4S will be knocked back from outsourcing contracts for Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Police forces next week. The preference now is to merge IT, HR, payroll and legal departments and take smaller savings. G4S is now seen as an unacceptable risk.

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The Olympics could be better off with the military playing a greater role, according to a senior Home Office official. Charles Farr, Head of Security and Counter-terrorism, played down concern about G4S and claimed it could ultimately make the Games more secure.

We've had a last-minute hitch but we've resolved the hitch and one could argue that we've come out of it stronger than we were when we went into it. We've got a really effective armed forces, military component to our venue security operation. G4S have faced a significant problem effectively scheduling, rostering, very large numbers of people to deploy to different venues at different times with different skills.

They have realised that not all of their workforce wanted to work at particular times, not all of them could work at particular times and not all of them had the right qualifications yet available. We first got an inkling that there was a problem with the scheduling system at the end of June. We were told that there was a possible shortfall, a temporary shortfall, and G4S were unable to put precise numbers on it. I asked them to do so and they couldn't.

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The BBC's East of England Home Affairs Correspondent reports that some police forces are rethinking plans to outsource services to G4S after the company failed to provide enough staff for the London Olympics.

Forces in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire are thought to be reconsidering contracts. Police are outsourcing services as a way of cutting costs.

Been told chief constables of Beds Herts Cambs will pull back from joining Lincs police G4S outsourcing contract. Police statement due am.

From @sallychidzoy on Twitter: (11:33 pm, Thu 19 Jul 2012)

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