Auditor warns Police Scotland facing funding gap by 2020/21
Police Scotland and its oversight body are facing a projected funding gap of almost £190 million by 2020/21, the Auditor General has said.
The figure was revealed in Audit Scotland's annual audit of the force and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) accounts for 2015/16.
Audit Scotland found Police Scotland and the SPA ''continue to suffer from weak financial leadership and considerable budget pressures'' for the third year running.
Auditor General for Scotland Caroline Gardner said it is ''unacceptable'' that she has highlighted the issues every year since the organisations were created when Scotland's eight police forces merged in 2013, and called for ''substantial improvement''.
The report said inaccurate records and poor financial management mean ''significant corrections'' are needed on the accounts.
The Scottish Police Authority oversaw £1.1 billion of spending in 2015/16 and has allocated Police Scotland £972.9 million for 2016/17, but the report criticised the ''very limited publicly-available detail'' on what the money is to be used for, adding: ''This impedes effective scrutiny and transparency to the public.''
The projected funding gap of £188.2 million by 2020/21 includes the Scottish Government's commitment for a real terms rise in the policing budget for the duration of the current Scottish Parliament, assumes that the Government continues to pay VAT for both the SPA and Police Scotland, and includes the continuing commitment'' to maintain police officer numbers at 17, 234.
The projected funding gap for 2016/17 is £17.5 million and the budget gap predicted for 2018/19 has fallen from £84.6 million in last year's Audit Scotland report to £45.8 million.
Ms Gardner said: ''The Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland are among the largest and most important public bodies in the country. It's therefore unacceptable that I've had to report to the Parliament on weak financial leadership and management in all three years of their existence. Substantial improvement is required now to deliver the strong financial leadership, long-term planning and robust scrutiny that will be needed if policing in Scotland is to withstand the major challenges ahead.''