A police watchdog has been criticised for trying to get a damning report into its accounts watered down ahead of publication.
The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) wanted Audit Scotland to ditch a long-term deficit projection of around £198m and focus on a more “appropriate” figure of £60m.
However, the auditors stood their ground and ignored the request, prompting Labour MSP Claire Baker to say: “The SPA cannot hide the pressures our police are under.”
In December, Audit Scotland published its report card into the 2015/16 accounts of the SPA, a body that is accountable for the near £1billion policing budget north of the border.
According to the report's conclusions, there was “weak financial leadership in both the SPA and Police Scotland” and a “shortage of capacity and competency” in key areas such as capital accounting.
In a section on the SPA’s financial prospects until 2020/21, Audit Scotland projected a potential cumulative deficit of nearly £200m.
Under freedom of information legislation, the Herald asked Audit Scotland for all communications with external bodies on draft copies of the report.
On December 9th, the then interim chief financial officer of the SPA, Karen Kelly, emailed Audit Scotland to say that the police body’s “LTFS” - a long term financial strategy - had been “updated”.
She wrote that this document included a summary of the “10 year projection model” which showed a £60m deficit in 2017/18.
Kelly wrote: “In view of this updated information, which is expected to be available publicly in January, I am concerned that the inclusion of your own projections at exhibit 1 serves to potentially undermine and contradict our own very detailed and more accurate calculations."
She continued: “I wonder if it would be more appropriate to simply state that calculations show that there is an underlying deficit of £60m which requires to be addressed on a sustainable basis and that this is one of the core objectives of the Policing 2026 programme.”
In the end, Audit Scotland tweaked the £198m figure to £188m, but this change reflected the Scottish Government’s draft budget, rather than being in response to the SPA email.
The same batch of communications also showed the SPA admitting they had problems with “capability” in finance.
“We do not agree that there was ‘limited capacity’ in the finance function. The department has in excess of 20 qualified accountants and around 200 staff in total so whilst the focus may not be quite right and there may be some difficulties with capability, there is certainly sufficient capacity.”
Baker said: “It is frankly ridiculous that with a report that highlights the 'weak financial leadership and management' from the SPA that they try and dictate what figures are used. Under the SNP we have a police force desperately trying to balance the books rather than giving the officers and staff the support and resources they deserve.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said:
“However you dress it up there is no hiding the black hole in police Scotland finances. The botched centralisation of the PS has caused real harm and the responsibility lies squarely at the SNP’s door.
“Unless the Scottish Government gives officers and staff the support they need then the public will inevitably see the cuts to the services that aim to keep our communities safe.”
A spokesman for the SPA said: "This was an entirely reasonable and appropriate exchange about whether to articulate a projected deficit on either a recurring annual, or cumulative, basis. We were not in any dispute about the fact that there is a projected revenue deficit to address. The focus of the SPA and Police Scotland has been on developing a long term strategy to develop our service to meet changing demands, and achieving financial sustainability is an important part of that approach. We will publish that strategy for public consultation before the end of February."
Audit Scotland declined to comment.
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