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The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) disclaimed his opinions on the College of Policing Limited’s 2024/25 financial statements and regularity, the second consecutive year he has done so. The audit found that the College had improved its financial controls and could support the material accuracy of its closing balances at 31 March 2025, but it could not provide enough evidence to assure inherited opening balances, comparative figures and affected transactions. A disclaimer is a lack of sufficient audit evidence—not, by itself, a finding of fraud or a proven loss.
What a disclaimed audit opinion means
A disclaimer means the auditor could not obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to form an opinion. In the C&AG’s 27 January 2026 report on the year ended 31 March 2025, he said he could not conclude that the accounts were free from material and pervasive misstatement because substantial balances remained outside assurance. This does not establish that those balances were wrong; it means the auditor could not verify them to the required standard.
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The disclaimer covered both the financial statements and regularity. The C&AG also disclaimed his opinions on the 2023/24 accounts, making this the second year in a row. Read the signed C&AG report in the College’s 2024/25 annual report and accounts.
How the IT and payroll transition started the problem
The underlying breakdown followed an October 2023 move from SAP to Metis, an Oracle-based finance system used by the Home Office, and the outsourcing of most payroll functions to Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL). The National Audit Office (NAO) reported that the College went live with known problems unresolved and without a line-by-line reconciliation of transferred data. Weak controls and reconciliations then made it difficult to obtain evidence for transactions and account balances.
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The first audit disclaimer concerned 2023/24. The NAO reported a £1.3 million overspend against the College’s delegated Home Office budget, linked to inaccurate system information and poor financial management. At the end of audit fieldwork in February 2025, the College had been unable to substantiate 56% of the audit sample. The NAO’s account of the 2023/24 audit describes the transition and its consequences.
What the 2023/24 audit could not substantiate
The 2023/24 report identified transaction and balance populations for which the College could not provide sufficient evidence. The amounts below are not established losses or proven misstatements:
- £13.8 million in non-grant-in-aid income and £32 million in expenditure.
- £4 million in cash and cash equivalents and £12.5 million in accruals.
- £52.8 million in staff costs.
- £37.6 million in property, plant and equipment revaluations and impairments, and £5.8 million in intangible assets.
These were areas the auditor could not adequately verify, not amounts shown to be missing or incorrectly recorded. The College of Policing Limited’s 2023/24 annual report and accounts sets out the affected populations.
What improved—and why it was not enough for an unqualified opinion
The C&AG reported that the College’s financial control environment stabilised in the latter part of 2024/25 and into 2025/26. It added finance staff, brought key reconciliations up to date and appointed a professionally qualified Director of Finance. The Board approved an audit recovery plan in June 2025. The College also completed its 2024/25 accounts almost six months earlier than it had completed the previous year’s accounts.
Audit testing showed a marked improvement in supporting evidence: 56% of tested sample items were unsupported in the prior-year audit, compared with none in 2024/25. However, the overall error rate in the 2024/25 sample was 17%. The auditor could conclude that closing balances at 31 March 2025 were materially accurate, but could not assure the 31 March 2024 balances, comparative figures, or in-year transactions and cash flows for either 2023/24 or 2024/25. Reversing entries from the disclaimed prior year also affected assurance over the following year’s transactions.
That distinction explains the second disclaimer: better evidence for the year-end position did not repair the evidential gap in the previous year’s opening balances and the comparative and transaction records that depended on them. The C&AG described producing auditable 2024/25 statements as “a significant achievement from a difficult starting position,” while still concluding that he lacked enough evidence for an opinion.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the College and its former chief executive have said
In a February 2026 response, the College described the recovery measures it had taken. That account provides the organisation’s perspective on remediation; the auditor’s signed report remains the source for the basis of the disclaimer. The College’s response to the NAO report sets out its explanation.
Giving evidence to a House of Commons committee on 14 July 2026, former chief executive Sir Andy Marsh said he would advise others not to implement a new financial management system mid-financial year. Asked whose decision it was to introduce the system mid-year, he said, “Ultimately, it was mine.” Those are his reflections on the decision, rather than the auditor’s conclusions. Read the committee’s oral evidence.
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What to expect in the next audit
The C&AG said the 2025/26 opinion was likely to include a limitation-of-scope qualification. If audit results for that year are satisfactory, the limitation could be confined to prior-year comparatives and disclosures related to balances at 1 April 2024. That could then allow an unqualified opinion on the 2026/27 accounts, provided testing is satisfactory. These are conditional projections, not a guarantee that either outcome will follow.
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