Pope’s visit drains even more money from the taxpayer – and from Third World countries

The Pope’s few hours in Edinburgh during his visit to the UK in September last year cost the Lothian and Borders Police £543,226 and involved 900 police officers, newly-released figures from the police board show. And now the Government has revealed that it took almost £2 million from the overseas aid budget to finance the Pope’s jamboree.

Lothian and Borders police chiefs are now in negotiations with the Scottish Government over recovering costs from the visit to the city, with ministers expected to “comment shortly” on a deal. Councillor Iain Whyte, convener of the police board, said the Government had landed the Pope’s visit on the police, adding: “If something is a major national event that is chosen to come to your area, such as the Papal visit, there is the expectation that there will be some assistance with the cost of that. I would hope we would be successful in getting some of that funding back.”

The policing costs are on top of Edinburgh City council’s own bill of almost £300,000 for decorating the streets and arranging a parade.

Meanwhile, it was revealed in parliament this week that £1.85 million pounds of the £10.2 million that the taxpayer shelled out for the visit came from funds set aside to aid development in poor countries.

Malcolm Bruce MP, head of the Committee on International Development, found the contribution to the Pope’s visit while examining the accounts of the Department for International Development (DfID) for 2010. Mr Bruce said: “Many people are surprised as we discover that the money for British aid has been used to finance the Pope’s visit last year. The Government must explain precisely what this money was used for and how it fits into the remit of foreign aid.”

A spokesman for the Department for International Development said: “DFID was one of a number of Government departments part-funding the Pope’s visit to the UK. Our contribution recognised the Catholic Church’s role as a major provider of health and education services in developing countries. This money does not constitute official development assistance and is therefore additional to the coalition Government’s historic commitment to meet the 0.7% UN aid target from 2013.”

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “The use of foreign aid money to help one of the wealthiest organisations in the world to aggrandise itself in this way is disgraceful. The Pope has taken food, medicine and safe drinking water away from some of the poorest people in the world in order ride around in purpose built cars and drain money from hard-pressed police authorities and local councils. It seems there is no end to the Vatican’s greed.”

This is what we have uncovered so far of the costs of the Pope’s visit:

Central Government: £10.2 million

West Midlands Police: £280,000

Birmingham City Council: £82,000

Warwickshire Police (for planning for a mass at Coventry airport that was subsequently abandoned): £80,000

Edinburgh city council – parades and street decorations: £250,000

Lothian and Borders Police £543,000

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