Review ordered into £65m 'missed' from police and crime finances in South Yorkshire

The OPCC was combined with the South Yorkshire Mayor’s office in 2024, meaning Oliver Coppard has been at the helm since his recent election in May. Before then, Dr Alan Billings served as Police and Crime Commissioner.

Following the transfer of the OPCC’s functions to the role of Mayor, checks undertaken by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) finance team uncovered “significant errors” in the former OPCC’s accounts and future year budgets.

According to a recent report seen by the Mayor, £65million has been spent on essential equipment - such as kit for officers, vehicles and IT gear and services - in recent years. It is said investments like this are often financed through borrowing and repaid over longer periods to “help make costs more affordable”.

The SYMCA finance team identified £16m of charges towards the OPCC’s repayments have not been made and future payments worth £49m have not been included in future spending plans.

It is said the problems would “appear to represent a fundamental error in accounting practices in the office of the former PCC”. The errors were reportedly not identified in annual audit checks from 2020 onwards.

Mayor Oliver Coppard said: “I am deeply frustrated by the problems uncovered by my team following the transfer of OPCC powers into my office earlier this year.

“These problems would appear to represent a fundamental error in accounting practices in the office of the former PCC.

“Those mistakes were missed by external and internal checks.”

The Mayor and officers from SYMCA are now working with the government, external auditors and SYP to mitigate the impact the required charges will have on budgets going forward. It is said those conversations have been “positive”.

Mayor Coppard continued: “I have now instructed my office to bring in an external team to independently look at the processes that allowed those mistakes to go undetected for five years.

“I am grateful to South Yorkshire Police and the government for the constructive conversations we have already had about finding a sustainable solution to both these new challenges and the ongoing pressures caused by tightened police budgets over the last 14 years.

“Protecting the communities of South Yorkshire will always remain my first and most vital priority.”

He has ordered an independent review of the accounts of the former OPCC to understand how this issue arose and to ensure that no other errors have occurred.

The Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, Lauren Poultney, said she was disappointed to learn of the shortfall and added it will “of course” have impacts on the service the force are able to deliver.

She said: “As you would expect, my priority now is to safeguard the services we provide to the public and so I have sought reassurance from the Mayor the accounts, now in his care, are properly governed.

“I have that assurance and feel confident through working together and with the support of the Home Office we will be able to stabilise the budget and protect the services we offer. That said, there will of course be challenges ahead as we work through this.”

South Yorkshire Police reassured the public it was not “bankrupt” but it was “too soon to say” what the shortfall would be for staff.