Revealed: King’s College London’s annual security spend exceeds £15 million

King’s College London has reported spendings of over £15,000,000 on security staff in the 2024/25 academic year.

A Freedom of Information Request (FOI) obtained by The King’s Tab has revealed the university’s annual spending on both internal, external and overtime security staff between September 2024 and May 2025.

The total spend came to £15,524,936 which is equivalent to the annual tuition fees of over 1,600 home students.

This sum is likely to have included the day-to-day security spending on CCTV systems, door access controls, alarm monitoring systems as well as internal security staff members, whose duty it is to protect the campus and to be there for students and staff alike.

However, the money was also spent during a time when the university incurred multiple protests, including encampments.

The figure includes internal security staff which totalled a staggering £13,156,455.

Meanwhile external security staff, cost a much lower sum of £649,527 as well as overtime security which came to a total of £1,718,954 across the entire team and all campuses.

A King’s College London spokesperson said: “The safety of our community is our absolute priority, and this means ensuring that the right security provisions are in place throughout our vast estate, which as one of the largest universities in the country with over 40,000 students and 14,000 staff, includes over 80 buildings in multiple campuses across London.

“Our team of over 250 security staff were rightly brought in-house in 2019 to ensure they would receive hourly pay above the London Living wage and essential King’s staff benefits, such as a pension and holiday pay which all add to the overall costs.”

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