Police watchdog under fire for attempt to water down damning finance report

A police watchdog has come in for fierce criticism after it tried to get a report into its ailing finances watered down before publication.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) attempted to get Audit Scotland to lower its deficit projection for the watchdog from £198 million to the more “appropriate” £60m.

But creditors ignored the request and in December published the report detailing the 2015/16 accounts.

The Herald has since obtained Audit Scotland’s communications with external bodies on the report.

On December 9, Karen Kelly, who was then interim chief financial officer of the SPA, emailed Audit Scotland to say the body’s long-term financial strategy had been “updated” with a revised projected deficit of £60m in 2017/18.

Ms 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 added: “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.”

Audit Scotland ultimately reduced the figure to £188m, but this was as a result of a change in the Scottish government’s draft budget rather than in response to the SPA’s request.

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.”