A BLUEPRINT FOR TERROR
Safety of world leaders ‘put at risk’ by astonishing government blunder after secret plans of Glasgow climate summit venue are mistakenly published online
THE safety of world leaders visiting Scotland for a major climate change summit has been put at risk by an astonishing security breach – uncovered by The Scottish Mail on Sunday.
About 200 heads of state along with tens of thousands of delegates will gather in Glasgow in November for the 26th United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP).
But highly sensitive blueprints of the event site – a dossier described as a ‘manual’ for terrorists – have been published on a Government website by bungling civil servants.
The detailed drawings reveal the layout of secret tunnels, the location of power hubs and generators and where gas, electricity and drainage networks connect to the mains – offering a potential way into the site for terrorists or criminals.
Also exposed is the position of counterterror bollards which aim to prevent vehicles getting too close to the campus.
Last night, the former head of the UK National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Chris Phillips, said the documents had ‘blown any hope of security’ at the two-week summit,
which is due to be held at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), near the city centre.
Mr Phillips added: ‘It’s a ridiculous thing to do. It’s a manual for how to damage this site. That’s the sort of information that you just wouldn’t want out there.
‘Information about a building is also designed to protect a building and to prevent any wouldbe criminals or terrorists or criminals who want to attack the venue.
‘Whether it is climate change protesters or terrorists, this information shouldn’t be out in the public domain. It just makes the job of securing the site so much more difficult.’
The event is set to be attended by the greatest number of heads of state the UK has ever welcomed at once, and is likely to include Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron of France.
Yesterday, a UK Government spokesman said: ‘Public access to these documents was uploaded in error and has been removed.
‘We are continuing to work very closely with Police Scotland and the relevant authorities to ensure COP26 is a secure and welcoming event for all participants.’
Summit organisers now face urgent questions about the publication of the papers.
The documents were made available online by UK Government officials in December.
A 20-page document published on the gov.uk website states that the commercial arm of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is looking for organisations to help set up and run the event.
A ‘request for information’ notice designed to assess potential suppliers before a tender process reads: ‘COP26 will be a high-profile, large-scale event and the organisational and logistical demands will be huge.
‘This is a major priority for the authority... and it is imperative the authority maintain their high reputation for the impeccable organisation and delivery of international events.’
The papers state one of the FCO’s primary roles is ‘safeguarding the UK’s national security by countering terrorism and weapons proliferation, and working to reduce conflict’.
But a follow-up clarification document for interested companies goes on to provide an unsecure web link that leads to a trove of 19 files, contained in 12 folders.
Incredibly, the site published a username and password for the portal, allowing anyone to pore over blueprints laying out every area of the event space’s buildings room by room, including backstage and dressing areas, VIP lounges, sprinkler valve rooms and the power hub – including two transformers and a substation – needed to control the electricity supply.
Plans include control rooms and service areas, a communications room for the media, a boiler room and a ‘masterplan’ of the site.
When our reporter requested the same schematics from Glasgow City Council last week, they were told the information could not be passed on for ‘security reasons’.
On a quiet afternoon last week, we visited the SEC – which consists of the SEC Centre, SSE Hydro and the SEC Armadillo – to see if we could locate the drains, gas and electricity supplies based on the maps we had downloaded. We found the detailed blueprints were accurate.
Although our reporter walked around the centre for more than half an hour taking pictures, finding electricity storerooms and knocking on the back of toilet cubicles to check the walls were hollow, they were not stopped or questioned by security staff. Terrorists often carry out surveillance using detailed plans of buildings to help plan attacks – and usually carry out reconnaissance missions.
Discussing the released blueprints of Scotland’s largest entertainment venue, Mr Phillips said: ‘Anything like this would give the terrorists or criminals an opportunity to make some plans which could hit the police or whoever is securing the building in a location that they wouldn’t expect. So for anyone who knows where the tunnels and voids are, it just makes the job of security teams so much harder.’
Today’s revelation is one of a number of controversies surrounding the COP26 summit.
Serious concerns have been raised by Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Iain Livingstone over the policing costs for the conference from
November 9 to 21, with the bill tipped to top £200 million.
Police are also expecting widespread protests after last year’s UN climate conference in Madrid drew crowds of up to 500,000 marchers.
Officers will be brought in from every force in the UK.
Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins said he would not comment on the summit specifically but said:
‘It’s ridiculous... a manual for how to damage this site’
‘We are developing an extremely thorough safety and security plan with partners which we are confident will make COP26 a safe event.’
Last month, the summit’s president, Claire Perry O’Neill, was sacked by Boris Johnson and later claimed he had ‘saltily’ refused to give First Minister Nicola Sturgeon a key role at the event – and had threatened to move it to England.