Herts and Beds police have said they are still going ahead with a business plan to privatise backroom operations with troubled Olympic security firm G4S.

The authorities, alongside the Cambridgeshire force, said today that proposals to move management of 10 departments to G4S to help tackle a �73m shortfall in government funding are going ahead as planned, despite yesterday’s announcement by the firm that it has failed to meet its commitment to provide enough security guards for the Games.

The firm has only 4,000 of the promised 10,000 guards in place, leading the government to call on the army to meet the shortfall.

In a joint statement the three authorities said: “Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire have commissioned a full business case which will examine in detail the proposal to outsource our Organisational Support functions via the Lincolnshire Police contract, with G4S as the supplier.

“As the work to develop a full business case and apply due diligence continues, the ability and capacity of G4S to deliver the range of services under consideration across the three forces will naturally be carefully scrutinised.”

The failure of G4S to meet its contract was cited as a factor in a decision by Surrey Police Authority yesterday to scrap similar plans with the firm.