Scotland’s police service has been branded “an organisation in crisis” by a former SNP minister over a £200m black hole in the force’s finances.
MSPs were told by the country’s independent financial watchdog that the Scottish Police Authority faces an even worse total deficit than the £188m funding gap it predicted just weeks ago.
Senior figures from police and the government will now be summoned before the Scottish Parliament to explain how it was allowed to happen.
Caroline Gardner, the Auditor General, told Holyrood’s public audit committee the lack of progress over the last three years was “unacceptable”.
She said: “To illustrate the scale of the future financial challenge, I have updated my projections of the potential funding gap facing the SPA and Police Scotland.
“These suggest a cumulative deficit of almost £200m in real terms by the end of this parliamentary session. I consider this projection to be conservative.”
Jenny Marra, the convener of the public audit committee, described the development as “incredibly worrying”.
The Labour MSP added: “The audit committee is calling for the chair and chief executive of the Scottish Police Authority, the chief constable and the Scottish Government to come before us to get some clear answers on this financial mess and find out why no progress is being made despite continual warnings.”
Former minister, Alex Neil, who is on the committee, branded the performance as “totally unacceptable”.
The SNP MSP said: “It strikes me that this is an organisation in crisis, in terms of the management of their finances.”
Ms Gardner was answering questions from MSPs on the Audit Scotland’s investigation into the financial state of the SPA, which oversees Police Scotland.
The report, which relates to the £1.1bn spent by the SPA and Police Scotland in 2015/16, found they “continued to suffer from weak financial leadership and considerable budget pressures” for the third year running. The report also found the SPA’s accounts were peppered with accounting errors.
Asked if she had seen such a lack of progress over three years in a public body’s finances, Ms Gardner said: “This is very unusual and I think it is unacceptable.”
A spokeswoman for the SPA responded: “Last year’s accounts have been assessed by Audit Scotland as a true and fair picture of police finances, however the issues that led to a protracted preparation of those accounts was unacceptable.
“Over the past year, we have carried out a major refresh and strengthening of the leadership team at the helm of policing, with more to come.”
“We look forward to providing Parliament wit
