Policing the Olympic torch procession cost taxpayers almost £6.5m nationally, according to a series of Freedom of Information requests by HMI Olympics.

The spending includes the costs incurred to local police authorities throughout the UK for the 56 days the Olympic Torch went around the country.

The Metropolitan Police Service spent the most – not surprisingly as the torch spent a week in London and was perhaps the most obvious target for disruption.

Over a quarter of their spending – half a million – was spent on overtime for police and staff. The figure includes a £850,000 grant the Metropolitan Police Service received from the Home Office.

If grants are not taken into account the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) emerges as the top spender.

Help Me Investigate previously reported on spending by the body on the Northern Ireland investigative site The Muckraker.

According to their response the City of London Police did not incur any costs to police the Olympic torch procession because they incorporated any additional resources required within the existing policing strategies.

Kent Police also treated the event as “business as usual”.

Police and staff overtime form almost half the costs. However there were some curious items of spending, such as batteries and Dog Police Support Unit Kits for £4.

‘Mutual aid‘ – responsible for £690,000 of spending – is the sourcing of police officers from one force to another.

‘Other’ costs on the graph include figures that the authorities gave as general total or ‘other’ costs in FOI replies.

You can get the full data from the FOI requests on this Google spreadsheet – also reproduced in the table below.

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