Cash-strapped police face returning funds to ministers
Force says it is unable to spend all of its budget quickly enough
Scotland’s cash-strapped national police force is preparing to hand back part of its budget because it is unable to spend the money quickly enough.
Senior figures from Police Scotland will next week meet Scottish Government officials to discuss returning millions of pounds of reform funding.
The Scotsman revealed earlier this month that Police Scotland is set to “underspend” its capital and reform budgets by £22 million this year.
It has now emerged the force may have to return some of the money to the Scottish Government due to its inability to procure contracts in the current financial year.
James Gray, Police Scotland’s chief financial officer, described the issue as a “high-risk area” for the national force.
The force, which has an annual budget of around £1.1 billion, is predicting a deficit of around £45m for its main revenue budget. In previous
years, unspent reform cash has been used to offset the deficit, but SPA chairman Andrew Flanagan said doing so again would undermine the “credibility” of Scottish policing.
Mr Flanagan said: “We need clarity on whether there’s wriggle room or whether the Scottish Government would like us to keep the allocation at this stage or whether they would like us to make a definitive statement of how much we want to hand back.
“Historically we have been in a situation where we’ve been granted reform money, been unable to spend it, and used it to offset operational expenditure. That undermines the credibility of Police Scotland and the SPA.
“Being more up front about this, being cold-eyed and not being optimistic and hope it will be alright would actually help build credibility.”
He added: “The earlier we can take a firm assessment of what we think we can spend and admit to what we can’t spend will help us next year when we go back to ask for reform money.”
Earlier this year, auditor general Caroline Gardner warned that Police Scotland will face a £200m funding gap by 202021, an estimate she described as “conservative”.
A report published earlier this month by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR), which drew on the experiences of serving officers, found Police Scotland operating with “diminishing resources” and becoming “increasingly stretched” in its attempts to engage with local communities
Scottish Conservative shad- ow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “People will be confused as to why a police force which has pleaded poverty from the outset is now handing money back.
“It’s well-documented that the Scottish Government’s decisions have left hard-working officers over-stretched, with many having to fill administration roles because of staff shortages.
“The public and our hardpressed police service will no doubt be asking what on earth the Scottish Government and SPA have been doing to end up with too much cash in the accounts. It is high time money like this was used to ensure better facilities.”
Last year Police Scotland appointed David Page as its first-ever director of corporate services.
Mr Page, whose salary is £173,000, is tasked with delivering “transformational change” across the organisation. His appointment was followed by that of Mr Gray, who had previously been on secondment from accountancy firm Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC).
Mr Gray said: “We are substantially improving our internal financial control and governance processes so that our three-year plan is built on solid foundations and in line with our committed response to the Audit Scotland report. ”
He added: “We are currently in discussions with the Scottish Government with regard to how much monies we will be able to return.”
“It’s well-documented that the Scottish Government’s decisions have left hard-working officers over-stretched”
LIAM KERR
It’s difficult to fathom how a struggling public sector organisation could find itself in a position where it actually has to hand back millions of pounds of government funding.
Yet that’s exactly the scenario being contemplated by Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority ahead of a meeting with the Scottish Government next week.
Scotland’s national police force receives an annual revenue budget of more than £1 billion and has already budgeted for a £45 million operating deficit.
But Police Scotland’s chief financial officer expects an “underspend” of £22m on the separate capital and reform budgets, money which should be used to invest in and help re-shape Scottish policing following the merger of eight regional forces in 2013.
Put simply, Police Scotland cannot spend the money quickly enough.
A tighter procurement process is said to have slowed down the force’s ability to write cheques.
It means a cash-strapped public body is left in the potentially embarrassing position of having to hand money back so that it can be used elsewhere in government.
That would prove frustrating for the top brass, but their angst is likely to pale into insignificance compared to those on the frontline who are continually asked to do more with diminishing resources. They are entitled to ask why this situation has been allowed to happen, because senior figures should be held to account over this matter.
That said, the position is not impossible. It is in the Scottish Government’s interests to make a success of Police Scotland, and if the full available resource has not been used to assist the continued reform of the organisation into a single national force, then the simple answer is to rule that Police Scotland should keep the unspent funds to be spent in the next financial year, or if necessary, accept receipt of the unspent funds and then promptly re-allocate the same amount next year, over and above the existing funding – with a firm reminder that at this time next year, the funds will have been fully allocated.
Alternatively, guidelines could be relaxed to allow the unused funds to be spent on equipment.
But the best outcome would be to allow the force to keep the money, and insist it is spent on capital and reform projects, as was intended. Let common sense prevail – and let there be no repeat of this matter.