Black hole in police f inances soars by £6m... in 2 months

SCOTLAND’S crisis-stricken single police force is facing a financial black hole of nearly £30million.

The figure has risen by £6million since the last estimate was published only two months ago.

The main reasons for the overspend are police officer and staff costs, although the force claims that with ‘strict workforce planning’ these are being ‘managed down’.

At the recent SNP conference, Scottish Police Federation general secretary Calum Steele said ‘the scale of the financial challenge facing the police service is enormous’.

He claimed decades of under-investment meant police were driving cars held

‘Budgets starting to spiral out of control’

together with duct tape, while some interview suites had leaks and mouldy carpets.

Last night, Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘This is a startling increase in overspend, and shows police budgets are starting to spiral out of control.

‘The SNP needs to explain why – and reassure the public that it will not have a knock on effect to frontline policing.’

Audit Scotland last year warned that police could face a funding gap of almost £85million by 2018-19.

It emerged in August that Police Scotland was facing a £21.1million black hole in its finances this year – despite making £5million of cuts.

But that has risen to £27.1million, according to Police Scotland documents presented to a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in Edinburgh yesterday.

The massive overspend on the £1.1billion budget comes despite efforts to save millions of pounds on vehicles, IT and forensics costs.

In documents submitted to the SPA meeting, James Gray, Police Scotland’s interim chief financial officer, said: ‘The main reasons for the forecast revenue overspend are a combination of over-spends against budget on both police officer and police staff costs.

‘With strict workforce planning in place, these costs are being managed down. In terms of non-pay costs, the overspend largely arises as a result of not being able to realise the level of savings that had been targeted from these budgets.

‘However... efficiencies identified are realising reductions in non-pay expenditure.’

Scottish Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur condemned the SNP’s ‘disastrous reforms’. Scottish Labour justice spokesman Claire Baker said: ‘Officers and staff should be getting the support and resources they need to keep our communities safe, but instead they are facing huge cuts and uncertainty.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We have committed to protecting the police resource budget in real terms in every year of this parliament, delivering a boost of £100million by 2021.

‘We have also provided an additional £55million of reform funding in 2016-17. The SPA and Police Scotland are working on a longterm strategy for a flexible, modern and sustainable police service.’