During the weekend of 9 – 11 July, the Rock’s military population increased in size by around 1,000 personnel, mainly from the ships’ companies of HMS PRINCE OF WALES, HMS LANCASTER and HMS ARTFUL.

It is worth noting that, despite this increased Royal Navy presence and at a time of Sunday’s high profile football match, police officers were not called to a single incident involving military personnel and, as a result, there were no arrests of soldiers, sailors or airmen.

Much of this success was due to the policing plan devised and led by the Royal Gibraltar Police and facilitated by the Memorandum of Understanding which was recently signed between the RGP and the Gibraltar Defence Police.

Much credit also must go to the men and women serving on PRINCE OF WALES, LANCASTER and ARTFUL.

Assistant Commissioner Cathal Yeats said, ‘A great deal of planning went into the weekend’s policing plan and we were delighted with the outcome. The benefits of working closely with the GDP and with the Joint Police and Security Unit were clear for all to see. I would like to thank these agencies for their help and cooperation and to thank our own RGP officers for carrying out so many additional duties over the last few days. Finally, I wish to thank all the visiting naval personnel for their contribution to what was such a successful weekend – except, of course, for the match result itself.’