No guarantees huge black hole found in policing budget won't harm services

But in going over the inherited books, SYMCA finance officers identified that £16m of charges that should have been made to allow for the repayment of this debt so far have been missed and that future payments of £49m have not been included in future spending plans.

These problems appear to represent a fundamental error in accounting practices in the office of the former PCC. These errors were not identified by annual audit checks from 2020 onwards.

The Mayor has said he is working “at pace” with the government, external auditors and South Yorkshire Police (SYP) to mitigate the impact the required charges will have on budgets going forward.

A statement from SYP said it is “too soon” to say what the black hole will mean for staff, but: “We have an established savings programme which we will be utilising further.

“We will always explore the non-people related options in the first instance and of course, we are hopeful of financial support.

As part of a formal process, the Mayor Oliver Coppard yesterday received a report from the SYMCA Section 73 Officer - a legal role responsible for resources and investment - and the Monitoring Officer, who has legal responsibilities for governance.

That report is required by law where issues such as these are identified.

In response, the Mayor accepted the recommendations of the officers, and asked them to commission an immediate independent review of the accounts of the former OPCC to understand how this issue arose and to ensure that no other errors have occurred.

When asked by the Yorkshire Post whether he could guarantee that this funding shortfall would not impact front line policing, Mr Coppard said: “We'll do everything we can to make sure South Yorkshire police has the funding, the resources, the capability and the capacity to keep everyone safe right across our region.

“That's why we're talking to the government, the policing minister and (Home Secretary) Yvette Cooper because we want to work with the government to solve this problem.

“But of course this is a significant challenge. There's no hiding that fact. That's why we've come out and told people exactly what's going on because we want people to be aware of what we're confronted with and what we're trying to do to try and fix it.”

When asked if he was hopeful the Government may help fund the shortfall, he said: “I think the government fully understands the scale of the challenge facing policing and the criminal justice system, not just in South Yorkshire but across the country.

“Of course this creates an additional pressure in South Yorkshire but the government understands the scale of that challenge.”

“We've had really constructive conversations already with the government, we will carry on those conversations with the government because we need to find a way through this problem.”