Auditor General reports on 2013/14 audit of Scottish Police Authority accounts

The Auditor General for Scotland, Caroline Gardner, has issued a report to the Scottish Parliament on matters raised in the audit of the 2013/14 accounts for the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).

Whilst the 2013/14 accounts were unqualified, the report draws Parliament's attention to the fact that aspects of the SPA's accounting records, and access to information and explanations, were of poor quality. It also states that adequate accounting records were not kept in certain areas during 2013/14.

This is an unusual conclusion from an auditor, reflecting the need for SPA and Police Scotland to make significant progress in improving their accounting records.

The report acknowledges that merging eight predecessor forces' finance functions with the Scottish Police Services Authority and the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency was a considerable challenge, at a time when numerous finance staff chose to take voluntary redundancy or early retiral.

The SPA has made progress or completed the majority of the recommendations made in Police Reform, published by Audit Scotland in November 2013. However, the report concludes that past uncertainty over the future finance functions of the SPA and Police Scotland, and its impact on permanent recruitment of senior finance staff, has delayed development of a sustainable financial plan for Scottish policing for the next decade.

This plan is needed to achieve the targeted savings of £1.1billion identified in the outline business case that accompanied the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, and additional required savings that have arisen from cost pressures such as pay awards and VAT. The SPA and Police Scotland are developing a financial strategy to take account of these additional savings beyond 2015/16.

The Auditor General has requested that the 2014/15 audit assesses progress in improving accounting records in SPA and Police Scotland, and monitors development of a long-term financial strategy.

The Auditor General's report is available at: www.audit-scotland.gov.uk.