POLICE Scotland is bracing itself for around £6 million in extra cuts after it admitted a planned financial boost from the so-called "gangster tax" was unlikely to materialise.

The force had aimed to use money raised under proceeds of crime, or Poca, legislation over the next two years to plug a hole in its already reducing budget.

However, its ruling board, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), yesterday formally announced that it no longer expected any such funding this financial year and would have to make up the shortfall.

SPA chief executive John Foley said: "The view now is that we are assuming no receipt of Poca funding and we will have to make additional savings.

"That is not to say there will definitely be no funding but that it would be prudent to assume there most likely won't be and that any we do get would be a bonus."

Police Scotland was partly created to deliver substantial savings by ending duplication between the old eight legacy forces and other parts of law enforcement now rolled into a single body.

Earlier this year, The Herald revealed plans to use £16m in Poca funds to help soften some of those cuts over this financial year and next. However, the Scottish Government and the Crown Office, which seizes the illegally gained money once it is identified by the police, insisted that only extra cash over and above the current annual total of about £7m could be kept by the police.

Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has championed moves to take money from criminals to pay for policing.

Yesterday he admitted he was "concerned about the process", suggesting the force was doing its bit to identify money and assets for seizure but hinting there may be "blocks" elsewhere in the system.

He said: "The undertaking here is that we won't see any funding without our budget stream until the government has seen its £7m, which is ringfenced for its projects. So we are not seeing any money yet.

"However, we are exceeding the ambitious targets we set for cash seizures and other restraints, so we are yet to understand where the process is not producing funding at the other end.

"It's important that we do that because this is not just for our balance sheet but to damage and disrupt organised crime."

The chief constable stressed he was liaising with the SPA, the government and Solicitor-General Lesley Thomson to find ways of improving the annual Poca haul.

Police Scotland is lending a detective sergeant to the Crownin a bid "to improve the communication flow" between enforcement and prosecution. Some Crown officials are understood to have been sceptical that Poca income could be ramped up as quickly as Sir Stephen hoped.

Graeme Pearson MSP, Labour's justice spokesman, championed Poca as a senior police officer. But as a politician, he fears that letting the force keep a gangster tax could create unhealthy incentives to target money and not criminality.

He said: "The threat assessment suggests that crime is a billion-pound business. Therefore it is extremely disappointing if authorities can't raise more than £7m in a single year. The time has come to review Poca legislation to make sure it is working properly because we should be hurting organised crime more."

Police Scotland posted an underspend for the first half of this financial year.