The government has doubled the budget for the opening and closing ceremonies of next year’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, from the original £40m to a reported £81m – after David Cameron gave the go-ahead for the proposed increase.
The extra money will come from within the £9.3bn Olympic public funding package.
The venue security for the 2012 Games has also risen, with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport estimating that 23,700 security staff will now be needed – more than twice the original estimate of 10,000.
The allocation for security at the London 2012 venues has risen by £271m, to £553m.
The figures were announced as part of the DCMS's latest Olympic Quarterly Economic Report.
The report added that the extra money had been re-allocated from savings made from the public expenditure budget for the Games.
Further funding will be made available to support Olympic organisers, LOCOG, with extra security staff, as well as specialist search and screening equipment.
The Olympics will be one of the UK's biggest security tests, covering 34 venues across Britain, over 64 days of operation - from when the Olympic village opens on 13th July to the time the Paralympic village closes on 12th September.
